Hiremathad A, Piemontese L. Heterocyclic compounds as key structures for the interaction with old and new targets in Alzheimer's disease therapy.
Neural Regen Res 2017;
12:1256-1261. [PMID:
28966636 PMCID:
PMC5607816 DOI:
10.4103/1673-5374.213541]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/14/2017] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Nowadays, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is widely recognized as a real social problem. In fact, only five drugs are FDA approved for the therapy of this widespread neurodegenerative disease, but with low results so far. Three of them (rivastigmine, donepezil and galantamine) are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, memantine is a N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, whereas the fifth formulation is a combination of donepezil with memantine. The prevention and treatment of AD is the new challenge for pharmaceutical industry, as well as for public institutions, physicians, patients, and their families. The discovery of a new and safe way to cure this neurodegenerative disease is urgent and should not be delayed further. Because of the multiple origin of this pathology, a multi-target strategy is currently strongly pursued by researchers. In this review, we have discussed new structures designed to better the activity on the classical AD targets. We have also examined old and new potential drugs that could prove useful future for the therapy of the pathology by acting on innovative, not usual, and not yet fully explored targets like peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPARs).
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