Drug development for Alzheimer's disease: review.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease, which is considered as one of the most intractable medical problems with heavy social and economic costs. The current drugs for AD, including acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) and memantine, a NMDA receptor antagonist, only temporarily ameliorate cognitive decline, but are unable to stop or reverse the progression of dementia. This paper reviewed the recent advance in AD drug development.