Alzheimer disease drug therapy

Care for people with dementia is demanding of resources, while the outcomes of care are uncertain. To date, the economic analyses of care strategies have been limited to new drug therapies for people with Alzheimer s disease. Full economic evaluations to compare both the costs and consequences have only been conducted for one of these dmgs, donepezil. However, problems with the design and data used in these studies mean that they do not provide robust evidence to determine appropriate management strategies for dementia. 

Cummings J. Drug therapy Alzheimer s disease. N Engl J Med 2004 351 56-67. 

Of particular importance in the geriatric patient Delirium, possible antagonism of cholinergic drug therapy in the treatment of Alzheimer s disease. 

Furthermore, a diet with low contents of FA may be involved in the development of insulin resistance, which suggests that an appropriate dietary intake of n-3 PUFA is considered protective against metabolic syndrome [183]. In addition, diverse psyquiatric impairs (depression, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, autism) and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease have been associated to decreased blood levels of n-3 HUFA. Besides, there are many examples about the use of pol)nmsaturated FA as drugs. Thus, EPA has shown efficacy as adjunctive treatment, and in some cases as the only treatment in several psyquiatric disorders [184]. It is suggested that the potential of n-3 FA to prevent recurrence and metastasis of mammary cancer when used in adjuvant therapy is associated with a n-6 to n-3 ratio lower than 2 1 [185], On the other hand, fish intake is considered as a protective factor for preventing prostate cancer in addition, in humans low levels of ALA in mammary adipose tissue are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in women [186]. 

Patel L, Grossberg GT (2011) Combination therapy for Alzheimer s disease. Drugs Aging 28 539-546... 

Lovastatin is a member of a class of drugs (atorvastatin and simvastatin are others in this class) called statins that are used to treat hypercholesterolemia. The statins act as competitive inhibitors of the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase. These molecules mimic the structure of the normal substrate of the enzyme (HMG-CoA) and act as transition state analogues. While the statins are bound to the enzyme, HMG-CoA cannot be converted to mevalonic acid, thus inhibiting the whole cholesterol biosynthetic process. Recent studies indicate that there may be important secondary effects of statin therapy because some of the medical benefits of statins are too rapid to be a result of decreasing atherosclerotic lesions. Statin therapy has been associated with reduced risks of dementia, Alzheimer disease, ischemic cerebral stroke, and other diseases that are not correlated with high cholesterol levels. Although this is still an active area of research, it appears that the pleiotropic effects of statins may be a result of a reduction in the synthesis of isoprenoid intermediates that are formed in the pathway of cholesterol biosynthesis. 

The development of novel drug therapies is vital to the advancement of human health. As we move into the twenty-first century, the aging of the population will bring with it a significant rise in degenerative diseases, in particular, Alzheimer s Disease (AD) [1], Current therapies for AD have only limited effects [2, 3, 4, 5], while the degenerative process eventually results in severe disability. In addition, no method yet exists for the regeneration of tissue. 

B.S. Desai, et al.. Blood-brain barrier pathology in Alzheimer s and Parkinson s disease implications for drug therapy. Cell Transplant 16 (3) (2007) 285-299. 

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