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Clinical Research on Alzheimer’s Disease: Progress and Perspectives

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Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common type of dementia, is becoming a major challenge for global health and social care. However, the current understanding of AD pathogenesis is limited, and no early diagnosis and disease-modifying therapy are currently available. During the past year, significant progress has been made in clinical research on the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of AD. In this review, we summarize the latest achievements, including diagnostic biomarkers, polygenic hazard score, amyloid and tau PET imaging, clinical trials targeting amyloid-beta (Aβ), tau, and neurotransmitters, early intervention, and primary prevention and systemic intervention approaches, and provide novel perspectives for further efforts to understand and cure the disease.

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Fig. 1

(Figures adapted from Nakamura et al. [15] with permission)

Fig. 2

(Image adapted from Desikan et al. [24] with permission)

Fig. 3

(Image adapted from Livingston et al. [2] with permission)

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Acknowledgements

This review was supported by the the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (2016YFC1306401).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, 400042, China

    Bin-Lu Sun, Wei-Wei Li, Chi Zhu, Wang-Sheng Jin, Fan Zeng, Yu-Hui Liu, Xian-Le Bu, Jie Zhu, Xiu-Qing Yao & Yan-Jiang Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Trauma, Burn and Combined Injury, Institute of Surgery Research, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, 400042, China

    Yan-Jiang Wang

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  1. Bin-Lu Sun
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Correspondence to Xiu-Qing Yao or Yan-Jiang Wang.

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Sun, BL., Li, WW., Zhu, C. et al. Clinical Research on Alzheimer’s Disease: Progress and Perspectives. Neurosci. Bull. 34, 1111–1118 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-018-0249-z

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