Natural Product Formulations for the Prevention and Treatment of Alzheimer's disease: A Patent Review.

INTRODUCTION: Although considerable efforts have been made to develop effective therapeutic agents for Alzheimer's Disease (AD), neither a consensus concerning the pathogenesis of the disease nor a successful therapy for its treatment is yet available. The natural product chemistry brings tremendous diversity and abundant resource for medical needs.

OBJECTIVES: The present review summarizes recent patents on natural extracts and derived drugs as agents for the prevention and treatment of AD. It also sums up the suggested mechanisms of action of the formulated natural remedies.

CONCLUSION: It is now becoming well accepted that multiple factors contribute to the progression of AD. The pathogenesis of the disease involves amyloid-β cascade, tau hyperphosphorylation, oxidative stress, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, protein misfolding, gene mutation, etc. It has been suggested that the multifactorial nature of AD pathogenesis requires the design of medicines with a wide spectrum of activity. Medicinal herbs are known to consist of multiple compounds and may implicate multiple mechanisms, thus being advantageous over the simple single-target drugs in the treatment of complex diseases. Indeed, natural products attract increased attention. In the last decades, they have become a major focus in the quest for AD remedies and may represent a real promise for curing the disease.