Drug Discovery from Chinese Medicine Against Neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's and Vascular Dementia

 

Yuen-Shan Ho, Kwok-Fai So, and Raymond Chuen-Chung Chang

 

Abstract

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Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia are two major diseases associated with dementia, which is common among the elderly. While the etiology of dementia is multi-factorial and complex, neurodegeneration may be the major cause of these two diseases. Effective drugs for treating dementia are still to be discovered. Current western pharmacological approaches against neurodegeneration in dementia develop symptom-relieving and disease modifying drugs. Current integrative and holistic approaches of Chinese medicine to discovering drugs for neurodegeneration in dementia include (1) single molecules from the herbs, (2) standardized extracts from a single herb, and (3) herbal formula with definite composition. This article not only reviews the concept of dementia in western medicine and Chinese medicine but also evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches.

 

Copyright © 2011 Ho et al. This is an open access article distributed under the

Creative Commons Attribution License.

1.              Introduction

2.              Dementia and medical sciences

3.              Dementia and Chinese medicine

4.              Standardization of dementia subtype classification and research guidelines

5.              Chinese medicine approaches based on the etiology of dementia

6.              Chinese medicine studies on the prevalence and distribution of dementia subtypes

7.              Chinese medicine research on treatment of dementia

8.              Standardized extracts from a single herb

9.              Herbal formulations

10.          Conclusion

11.          References

 

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