The Development of New Treatments for Alzheimer`s Disease

Current treatments for Alzheimer`s disease (AD) failto address the underlying pathology of the disease,instead providing symptomatic relief which is oftenshort-lived. Consequently, progression of thedisease is unrelenting, leading to a continualdecline in cognitive abilities which eventuallyresults in death. New, effective treatments for ADare clearly and urgently needed.This book begins by first reviewing the manypromising new therapies under development for AD. The design and implementation of a rational drugdesign strategy for making novel compounds to treatAD is then described. These drug discovery effortsinvolved computer modeling, chemical synthesis and invitro testing. Finally, a clinical trial ofL-tryptophan in people with mild to moderate AD isdescribed. People receiving L-tryptophanoutperformed those taking placebo on a number ofcognitive tests, suggesting the molecule may haveapplication in treating AD. The great diversity ofmaterial in the book enables it to appeal to peoplewith interests in many areas, including medicinalchemistry, neurology, clinical medicine and thepharmaceutical sciences.