NEUROPATHOBIOLOGY OF SENILE DEMENTIA AND MECHANISM OF ACTION OF NOOTROPIC DRUGS

Recent advances in neuroscience and molecular neurochemistry have subs tantially increased the knowledge of the neuropathobiology of senile d ementia and Alzheimer's disease. On the basis of various hypotheses co ncerning degenerative processes in aging brains, new therapeutic strat egies have been developed, including nootropic drugs with different me chanisms of action and heterogenous chemical structures. Mutual relati onships exist between neuroscientific research and nootropic drug deve lopment. To date, such areas of research and drug development have inv olved deficits of brain neurotransmission (cholinergic, monoaminergic, peptidergic), free radical-induced damage, disturbances of calcium ho meostasis and excitatory amino acid function, and deposition of amyloi d protein.