Alternative Medicine for Alzheimer’s disease

Nilanjan Ghosh,* Rituparna Ghosh, Alindam Ghosh, Subarno Chakraborty, Kalidas Acharya

Dr. B.C. Roy College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences, Durgapur 713206, India.

*Correspondence : nils.bhu@gmail.com

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disease which is recognized as one of the most important medical problems affecting the elderly. Extensive research in AD has substantially broadened the understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration and dementia. AD is characterized at the microscopic level by the presence of large numbers of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Existing treatments like several cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine for AD provide short-lived symptomatic relief as they fail to address the underlying pathology of the disease. The situation is further worsened by the undesirable reactions produced by those drugs. Consequently, the progression of AD is unremitting, leading to a continual decrease in cognitive abilities. To overcome these limitations of current therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease, extensive ongoing investigations aim to identify drugs that are effective and free of undesirable side effects. Certain naturally occurring phytochemicals like curcumin, hupzerine, ginkgo and resveratrol have been suggested to be potential therapies due to their anti-amyloidogenic, anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. These protective effects are also related with the ability to regulation of expression of apoptotic proteins, mitochondrial protection, and interference with APP metabolism. The present review is an assortment of various herbs and concomitant investigations towards discovery of new chemical entities useful to prevent the onset and control the progression of AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, curcumin, resveratrol, amyloid, neurodegeneration, resveratrol