oa Editorial [ Hot Topic: Anti Alzheimer Agents (Guest Editor: Helmut Hugel)]

If improvements in the quality of human life are to be made in the 21st century it will require the development of new therapeutic technologies that includes the prevention of cognitive aging, Alzheimer's disease [AD] and brain disorders. The task is enormous as there are very few potent drugs for brain diseases/disorders available on the market today. AD is one of the most challenging threats to human health in our society and is unprecedented since the entire aging population will experience neuronal withering and may become the target for treatment. A major characteristic of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology is formation of amyloid plaques from aggregation of the amyloid beta peptide. The therapeutic agents that are currently available for AD including acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AchEIs) and the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist are focused on improving the symptoms and do not curb/prevent the progression of the disease. This Anti Alzheimer Agents special issue includes a contribution elaborating the in vitro and in vivo function of a selective acetylcholinesterase inhibitor that when activated releases an active metal chelator for Fe, Cu, Zn ions with neuroprotective activity and inhibiting beta amyloid aggregation. Another contribution features the significant advances made regarding the nature of peptide inhibitors of Aâ having therapeutic application in AD animal models or human clinical trials by binding to amyloid type proteins to prevent amyloid aggregation. Multicomponent medicines derived from plant secondary metabolites potentially could provide significant combination therapies that impact multiple AD pharmacological targets and exert clinical efficacy beyond the reach of small molecule pharmaceuticals. Plants have always relied on mixtures of biologically active molecules to defend themselves against diseases and predation, drug combination therapies are gaining popularity. Traditional Chinese medicine is much more focused on the application of dietary and herbal product mixtures with all their complex interactions, for disease prevention and treatment. Multi-constituent and multifunctional herbs are considered a better therapeutic strategy to prevent or control complex diseases than single active ingredient pharmaceuticals. On this theme the scientific evidence of four of the most frequently used Chinese herbs for dementia treatment is presented. The general availability of green tea makes it an attractive chemopreventive vehicle for disease treatment and health promotion. Therefore the redox responsiveness and amyloid protein perturbation potential of green tea polyphenols are reviewed. The pharmacological activities of plants often appear to reflect their uses in traditional medicine. The ethnopharmacological approach for selecting plants to investigate for the treatment of a particular disease is a relatively successful method for the identification of plants and compounds that may be exploited, for use therapeutically in neurodegenerative and other cognitive disorders....