Cholinesterase inhibitors and N-methyl-D-aspartic receptor antagonists are currently the main treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD), targeting the clinical symptoms of AD. β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition and the highly-phosphorylated Tau protein-induced neurofibrillary tangles are some of the common pathological features of AD. In the past 20 years, many new drugs that focus on the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease have been assessed in clinical trials. Drugs such as β-amyloid monoclonal antibody and gamma-secretase inhibitor target the Aβ pathological pathway. New drugs targeting the Tau pathological pathway inhibit the generation of neurofibrillary tangles and the Tau protein antibodies. But until now, none of these drugs has brought a fundamental breakthrough. This initial breakthrough may come out of China as there are several groups here which already have disease-modifying drugs in phase II and phase III of clinical trials.
β- 淀粉样蛋白（amyloid- β，Aβ）沉积形成的老 年斑和高度磷酸化Tau 蛋白导致的神经原纤维缠结是 阿尔茨海默（Alzheimer’s disease，AD）的病理特征， 目前胆碱酯酶抑制剂和NMDA 受体拮抗剂是治疗AD 的主流药物，都定向作用于Aβ 或者Tau 蛋白。过去 20 年，许多基于阿尔茨海默病病理假说的新药都处于 临床试验阶段。那些Aβ 单克隆抗体和γ 分泌酶抑制剂 等新药定向作用于Aβ 的病理通路。那些可抑制神经原 纤维缠结和生成抗Tau 蛋白抗体的新药则定向作用于 Tau 蛋白的病理通路。但至今尚没有根本性突破性的好 消息。中国目前的研究似乎让人看到一丝曙光，一些 具有完全自主知识产权的治疗AD 新药正处在II 期或 III 期临床试验中。.
Keywords: Dementia; Tau protein; clinical trial; disease-modifying; treatment; β-amyloid.