Nanomedicine-based immunotherapy for Alzheimer?s disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease caused by the deposition of amyloid beta (A beta) fibrils forming extracellular plaques and the development of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) of intracellular hyperphosphorylated tau protein. Currently, the AD treatments focus on improving cognitive and behavioral symptoms and have limited success. It is imperative to develop novel treatment approaches that can control/ inhibit AD progression, especially in the elderly population. Immunotherapy provides a promising and safe treatment option for AD by boosting the patient's immune system. The minimum immune surveillance in the immune-privileged brain, however, makes immunotherapy for AD a challenging endeavor. Therefore, the success of AD immunotherapy depends mainly on the strategy by which therapeutics is delivered to the brain rather than its efficacy. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a major obstacle to therapeutic delivery into the brain microen-vironment. Various nano-formulations have been exploited to improve the efficacy of AD immunotherapy. In this review, the applications of different types of nano-formulations in augmenting AD immunotherapy have been discussed.

Automated summary

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disease characterized by the accumulation of amyloid beta (A beta) plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau protein neurofibrillary tangles (NFT). Current AD treatments have limited success and focus on improving cognitive and behavioral symptoms. Developing novel treatment approaches to control/inhibit AD progression, especially in the elderly, is crucial. Immunotherapy, which boosts the patient's immune system, shows promise as a safe treatment option. However, delivering therapeutics to the brain poses a challenge due to the minimal immune surveillance in the brain. The review discusses the use of different nano-formulations to enhance AD immunotherapy.