Round table discussion on Treatment prospects for Alzheimers disease and dementia

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Anthony Tsarbopoulos

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, Greece

: Int J Ment Health Psychiatry

Abstract

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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of senile dementia in our ageing society, and it is characterized by a gradual and harmful decline in cognitive and non-cognitive function. AD is the fourth main causes of death affecting more than 35 million people worldwide whereas it is projected to almost quadruple by 2050. The pathogenesis of AD has not yet been clarified and the understanding of the disease mechanism remains elusive. Nevertheless, it is widely believed that abnormal accumulation and aggregation of disease- specific proteins lead to neurodegeneration. Over the last thirty years, there has been a remarkable progress in our knowledge of the disease underlying cause, which in turn has generated more insights into where and when we can intervene. Despite the immense research efforts that have been put over the past years on the characterization of AD and the development of disease-modifying therapeutic approaches, there is still no effective therapeutic for AD. Current drugs may temporarily improve the cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer's, thus helping people with AD to improve function and independence but do not treat the underlying disease or delay its progression. There are more than 120 drugs currently in clinical development for AD, targeting beta-amyloid (a protein that comprises the amyloid plaques), tau protein and other drug targets such as inflammation, mitochondria, and neuroprotection. An equally important factor to the success of preventive strategies is the discovery of biomarkers which will aid the identification of people at risk of AD but without evidence of significant neurodegeneration.

Biography

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Anthony Tsarbopoulos is Associate Professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) Medical School, Greece. He is also the Director of the Bioanalytical Department at The Goulandris Natural History Museum. He received his BS degree in Chemistry from NKUA and his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Michigan State University. He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Mayo Medical School, and then a Group Leader in the Structural Chemistry Department of Merck/Schering- Plough Research Institute (1988-1998). He has over 86 publications in refereed scientific journals with more than 2350 citations (h-index: 28), and over 155 presentations in international conferences.

E-mail: atsarbop@med.uoa.gr