Cholinergic Drugs in Pharmacotherapy of Alzheimers Disease

Pelayo      Camps; Diego      Munoz-Torrero

Abstract

The cholinergic hypothesis of Alzheimers disease has spurred the development of numerous structural classes of compounds with different pharmacological profiles aimed at increasing central cholinergic neurotransmission, thus providing a symptomatic treatment for this disease. Indeed, the only drugs currently approved for the treatment of Alzheimers disease are cholinomimetics with the pharmacological profile of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. Recent evidence of a potential disease modifying role of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and M1 muscarinic agonists have led to a revival of this approach, which might be considered as more than a symptomatic treatment.

Keywords: Cholinergic Drugs, Alzheimers disease, muscarinic agonists, acetylcholine (ACh), Potassium Channel Blockers, Aminoacridines, N-Benzylpiperidines, xanomeline, muscarine