Developing effective therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease -- emerging mechanisms and actions in translational medicine.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible and progressive neurodegenerative disorder. Presently there are no effective disease-modifying therapies. Although mutations in specific genes have been shown to be linked to inherited early onset form of AD, the causes of the more typical late onset form of the disease remain to be elucidated. Recently, significant effort focused on characterization of the pathology of AD has uncovered emerging mechanisms highlighting the substantial role of Aβ in disease pathogenesis, which is linked to tau pathology and neuro-inflammation. Additionally, modifiable risk factors of AD have been identified and characterized. Notably, understanding the underlying mechanisms of AD made it possible to begin the development of new and potentially effective therapeutics. This review discusses some of these emerging mechanisms and approaches in the translational medicine of AD.