The experimental therapeutics of neurodegenerative disorders is in its
infancy, but neuroprotective strategies are already being applied in
healthy persons at high risk of developing disease as well as in patie
nts with manifest illness, Knowledge of etiology and pathogenesis, imp
roved design of clinical trials, the development of biological markers
, the advent of genetic animal models, the enhanced identification of
susceptibility factors, and more effective drug delivery-such advances
have improved the prospects for forestalling onset of illness and cli
nical decline in the growing numbers of people affected by neurodegene
rative disorders.