With an ageing population, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) represents a serious social and
economic threat to most societies. While AD’s key histopathological features, the amyloid- plaques
and the tau tangles, have been described more than a century and the first disease-causing mutations in
familial cases of AD already two decades ago, there is still no cure for this debilitating disease. Current
treatment is limited to various acetylcholine esterase (AChE) inhibitors and the NMDA receptor
antagonist, memantine, yet neither of these strategies halts the degenerative process that characterizes
AD [1]. More recently, strategies have been developed that target both amyloid- and tau, but none of
these has reached the patient [1]. Here we review what we have learned from animal models about the
pathogenesis of AD and treatment options. We further review current attempts to use stem cells to
restore the function of degenerating neurons or to replace them.
Keywords: Alzheimer, amyloid-beta, frontotemporal dementia, tau, therapy, transgenic
