New approaches to diagnose and treat Alzheimer's disease: a glimpse of the future.

An explosion of scientific and clinical knowledge about Alzheimer's disease now provides a basis for selecting targets for treatment aimed at slowing progression of dementia or delaying the onset of or preventing Alzheimer's disease. The rationale that underlies several promising approaches to treatment are reviewed. Novel forms of treatment are most effective when combined with sensitive clinical methods to diagnose Alzheimer's disease as early as possible and to track its progression over time. Therefore, this article highlights findings concerning biological markers for Alzheimer's disease and the mild cognitive impairment syndrome and attempts to define a prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease.