Development of anti-dementia drugs: Present and future

Senile dementia consists of cerebral vascular dementia and Alzheimer- type dementia. We review pharmacotherapy for senile dementia in the present and development of anti-dementia drugs in the present and future. Number of patients of cerebral vascular dementia is gradually decreased by control the risk factors such as hypertension, hyperlipemia, arteriosclerosis, diabetes. In the present we have only 3 anti-dementia drugs for Alzheimer-type dementia. All of them are cholinesterase inhibitors which prevent dysfunction of cholinergic neuronal system in Alzheimer-type dementia. Other cholinergic agonists and the drugs to non-cholinergic neuronal systems are under the clinical investigations. In future there are many possibilities to develop new drugs to related hypothesis of Alzheimer-type dementia such as inflammation, deficiency of estrogen, oxidative stress, β-amyloid toxicity, phosphorylation of tau protein, deficiency of neurotrophic factors etc.