Department of Pharmacology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh 160012, India.
Neurol Sci. 2013 Jun;34(6):831-9. doi: 10.1007/s10072-013-1316-x. Epub 2013 Feb 8.
Recent advances in the understanding of Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis have led to the development of numerous compounds that might ameliorate the disease process. Research in the field of Alzheimer's disease therapy has been partly successful in terms of developing symptomatic treatments, but also had several failures in terms of developing disease-modifying therapies. These successes and failures have led to a debate about the potential deficiencies in our understanding of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease and potential pitfalls in diagnosis, choice of therapeutic targets, development of drug candidates, and design of clinical trials. Many clinical and experimental studies are ongoing, but we need to acknowledge that a single cure for Alzheimer's disease is unlikely to be found and that the approach to drug development for this disorder needs to be reconsidered. Preclinical research is constantly providing us with new information on pieces of the complex Alzheimer's disease puzzle, and an analysis of this information might reveal patterns of pharmacological interactions instead of single potential drug targets. Several promising randomized controlled trials are ongoing, and the increased collaboration between pharmaceutical companies, basic researchers, and clinical researchers has the potential to bring us closer to developing an optimum pharmaceutical approach for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
近年来，对阿尔茨海默病发病机制的认识不断深入，促使人们开发出许多可能改善疾病进程的化合物。在阿尔茨海默病治疗领域的研究在开发对症治疗方面取得了部分成功，但在开发疾病修饰治疗方面也遭遇了几次失败。这些成功和失败引发了一场关于我们对阿尔茨海默病发病机制的理解可能存在缺陷以及在诊断、治疗靶点选择、候选药物开发和临床试验设计方面可能存在的陷阱的辩论。目前有许多临床和实验研究正在进行，但我们需要承认，阿尔茨海默病不太可能有一种单一的治愈方法，我们需要重新考虑针对这种疾病的药物开发方法。临床前研究不断为我们提供有关阿尔茨海默病这一复杂谜题的新信息，对这些信息的分析可能揭示出药物相互作用的模式，而不是单一的潜在药物靶点。目前正在进行几项有前途的随机对照试验，制药公司、基础研究人员和临床研究人员之间的合作增加，有可能使我们更接近开发出治疗阿尔茨海默病的最佳药物治疗方法。
