Therapeutic Strategies Aimed at Improving Neuroplasticity in Alzheimer Disease

COLAVITTA, M.F.; BARRANTES, FRANCISCO J.

Pharmaceutics

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)

Lugar: Basilea; Año: 2023 vol. 15

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most prevalent form of dementia among elderly people.Owing to its varied and multicausal etiopathology, intervention strategies have been highly diverse.Despite ongoing advances in the field, efficient therapies to mitigate AD symptoms or delay theirprogression are still of limited scope. Neuroplasticity, in broad terms the ability of the brain tomodify its structure in response to external stimulation or damage, has received growing attentionas a possible therapeutic target, since the disruption of plastic mechanisms in the brain appear tocorrelate with various forms of cognitive impairment present in AD patients. Several pre-clinicaland clinical studies have attempted to enhance neuroplasticity via different mechanisms, for example, regulating glucose or lipid metabolism, targeting the activity of neurotransmitter systems, or addressing neuroinflammation. In this review, we first describe several structural and functionalaspects of neuroplasticity. We then focus on the current status of pharmacological approaches to AD stemming from clinical trials targeting neuroplastic mechanisms in AD patients. This is followed by an analysis of analogous pharmacological interventions in animal models, according to their mechanisms of action.