Breakthrough Progress: New Drug Development for Alzheimer's Disease Illuminates the Light of Hope for Patients

Release time： 2024-07-26

【Summary Description】 Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a terrible disease, like a merciless shadow that envelops countless patients and their families. With the intensification of global population aging, the number of Alzheimer's disease patients continues to rise, bringing a heavy burden to society and healthcare systems. However, in this long-term struggle against the disease, researchers have never stopped exploring, and the process of developing new drugs is full of twists and turns, but occasionally hope can also be seen.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a terrible disease, like a merciless shadow that envelops countless patients and their families. With the intensification of global population aging, the number of Alzheimer's disease patients continues to rise, bringing a heavy burden to society and healthcare systems. However, in this long-term struggle against the disease, researchers have never stopped exploring, and the process of developing new drugs is full of twists and turns, but occasionally hope can also be seen.
The pathogenesis and research challenges of Alzheimer's disease
The pathogenesis of AD has not been fully elucidated, and many hypotheses attempt to uncover its mysterious veil. The A β cascade hypothesis suggests that under pathological conditions, an imbalance of β - amyloid protein (A β) leads to its deposition in the brain, forming amyloid plaques and triggering neuronal and synaptic toxicity. The hypothesis of abnormal phosphorylation of Tau protein suggests that over phosphorylated Tau protein aggregates to form neurofibrillary tangles, leading to neurotoxicity. The cholinergic hypothesis emphasizes the damage to cholinergic neurons caused by neurotransmitter deficiency in the brain. However, these assumptions have not been ultimately confirmed, and most new drugs developed based on these assumptions have ended in failure. Companies such as Johnson&Johnson/Pfizer's pembrolizumab, Merck's MK-8931, Roche's Gantenerumab and Crenezumab have all encountered setbacks during the clinical trial phase.
In the long process of exploration, the Alzheimer's disease treatment market has long been dominated by symptom relief drugs such as donepezil and memantine. Although they can alleviate symptoms, they cannot prevent the progression of the disease. This situation did not break through until 2021, when Bojian's Aducanumab (Aduelm) received accelerated approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, breaking the long-standing stalemate in the AD field where there were no new drugs. However, due to side effects and other issues, Aduhelm sparked controversy and ultimately withdrew from the market in February 2024.