Interdisciplinary challenges and promising theranostic effects of nanoscience in Alzheimer's disease

During the last decade, reports show that the incidence and prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementias have significantly increased. AD poses an enormous escalating threat to health services and resources. Early diagnosis of AD is recognized as one of the major challenges and primary aims in scientific communities. With the arrival of nanoscience and nanotechnology to medicine, hopes for early diagnosis and treatment of AD have considerably increased. To this end, nanobioresearchers are focused on three major areas consisting of early detection and recognition, biological markers and diagnosis, and pharmacotherapy. Several efforts are in progress for the discovery of new nanodrugs with a sufficient effort on the fast therapy of AD. In this review, a comprehensive overview of the conventional theories together with new conflicts and challenges on the major causes of AD is provided. In addition, the opportunities and challenges of nanoscience and nanotechnology as theranostic agents for AD are discussed in detail.