Future of Alzheimer’s Disease: Nanotechnology-Based Diagnostics and Therapeutic Approach

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the neurodegenerative diseases that leads to the deposition of amyloid plaques in the neuropil as well as outside the cells in the brain leading to sometimes cell death. Even though there are various traditional diagnosis methods, they lack sensitivity towards the detection of AD. FDA has also approved some drugs for the treatment and alleviation of AD severity but they are not capable of curing AD. The use of nanotechnology for biomedical applications such as specific drug delivery vehicles to treat various neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and also nanotechnology offers highly sensitive nanodiagnostic tools that utilize different nanoparticles/nanostructures. AD therapy utilizing a multifunctional nanotechnology approach could be developed for designing therapeutic cocktails and diagnostic tools (nanosensors, imaging) that simultaneously and specifically target the important molecule involved in AD. The interaction of different functionalized nanostructures used for the therapy of AD and its different physicochemical interactions with the neuronal cells in vitro or in vivo needs to be discussed. In this review, we will briefly discuss about the genes/proteins that are involved in AD and its pathology, traditional AD diagnosis methods such as magnetic resonance imaging, PET scan, in vitro nanodiagnostic methods such as zinc oxide nanoflower platform, surface plasmon resonance nanoparticle, scanning tunnelling microscopy, and QCM-based detection. In vivo nanodiagnostic approaches such as the use of nanoparticles in AD diagnosis with MRI, optical imaging, quantum dots, nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems for the treatment of AD such as solid lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles, nanogels, fullerenes, nano-ceria, dendrimers, zinc oxide nanoflowers, gold nanoparticles, FDA-approved drugs and nasal route of drug administration for effective AD treatment will also be discussed.