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Advances in Therapeutics to Alleviate Cognitive Decline and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease

Li, Jialin; Haj Ebrahimi, Anita; Ali, Afia B; (2024) Advances in Therapeutics to Alleviate Cognitive Decline and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease. International Journal of Molecular Sciences , 25 (10) , Article 5169. 10.3390/ijms25105169. Green open access

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Abstract

Dementia exists as a ‘progressive clinical syndrome of deteriorating mental function significant enough to interfere with activities of daily living’, with the most prevalent type of dementia being Alzheimer’s disease (AD), accounting for about 80% of diagnosed cases. AD is associated with an increased risk of comorbidity with other clinical conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) including, agitation, anxiety, and depression as well as increased mortality in late life. For example, up to 70% of patients diagnosed with AD are affected by anxiety. As aging is the major risk factor for AD, this represents a huge global burden in ageing populations. Over the last 10 years, significant efforts have been made to recognize the complexity of AD and understand the aetiology and pathophysiology of the disease as well as biomarkers for early detection. Yet, earlier treatment options, including acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and glutamate receptor regulators, have been limited as they work by targeting the symptoms, with only the more recent FDA-approved drugs being designed to target amyloid-β protein with the aim of slowing down the progression of the disease. However, these drugs may only help temporarily, cannot stop or reverse the disease, and do not act by reducing NPS associated with AD. The first-line treatment options for the management of NPS are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors/selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs/SNRIs) targeting the monoaminergic system; however, they are not rational drug choices for the management of anxiety disorders since the GABAergic system has a prominent role in their development. Considering the overall treatment failures and side effects of currently available medication, there is an unmet clinical need for rationally designed therapies for anxiety disorders associated with AD. In this review, we summarize the current status of the therapy of AD and aim to highlight novel angles for future drug therapy in our ongoing efforts to alleviate the cognitive deficits and NPS associated with this devastating disease.

Type: Article
Title: Advances in Therapeutics to Alleviate Cognitive Decline and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3390/ijms25105169
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms25105169
Language: English
Additional information: © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; anxiety disorder; depressive disorder; GABAA receptors (GABAARs); benzodiazepines; selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs); selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs); neuroinflammation; microglial; astrocytes; FDA-approved drugs; endothelin B receptor (ETBR); repurposing drugs
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > UCL School of Pharmacy
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > UCL School of Pharmacy > Pharmacology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10192989
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