Pharmacological drug strategies in Alzheimer's Disease

Introduction. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with a poor prognosis and no cure that affects millions of people worldwide. Medicines today in clinical studies try to investigate possible therapeutic effects that progress or stop the disease. Objective. This review is necessary to create a current panorama in 2021, describing the main pathways under study to inhibit important pathways of disease progression, such as pathways cholinergic system and ROCK inhibitors, as well as new perspectives of treatment with possible combination of drugs, to decrease neuroinflammation and change the course of the disease. Method. Reviewed ClinicalTrials.gov as of January 19, 2021, identified all trials of pharmacologic agents currently being developed for treatment of AD in phase 3 of clinical study, thus obtaining a global panorama to curb this devastating disease, creating better perspectives on the treatment of AD. Results. Different drugs (n = 25) were divided by types of targets of neurophysiological pathways (amyloid inhibitor; tau inhibitor; neurotransmitter receptors; non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), mitochondria and metabolic functions; synaptic plasticity). Conclusions. Advances in clinical trials bring hope and new avenues as targets for AD treatment are encouraged and show promise for new lines of treatment. New studies with more therapeutic combinations that change the course of the disease should be encouraged.