Targeting Neurodegeneration: The Emerging Role of Hybrid Drugs

Neuron loss is the main feature of neurodegenerative diseases. The two most prevalent neurodegenerative illnesses are Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. While several medications are currently approved to treat neurodegenerative disorders, most of them only address the symptoms that are related to the disorders. Owing to their severity and complex multifactorial pathophysiology, the approved medications currently in clinical use have not demonstrated sufficient efficacy and have limited therapeutic options. Enhancing medicine quality can be achieved using highly efficient conjugate chemistry methods, necessitating ongoing discovery efforts on hybrid drugs in academia and industry. The present review illustrates hybrid compounds and the design strategies that helped to create them. Developing multi-target directed ligands (MTDLs) is a more advantageous and sensible strategy for treating long-term complex illnesses like neurodegenerative diseases. Compared to classic treatments, hybrid drugs can deliver combination therapies in a single multifunctional agent, making them more potent and specific. Three main objectives are being initiated by using hybridization techniques in drug design: (i) increasing selectivity, (ii) improving activity, and (iii) reducing toxicity. The development of hybrid medications may offer a valuable method for producing compounds that are less likely to develop resistance and more likely to be effective. Hybrid drugs hold great promise, but a few technical and regulatory obstacles must be overcome before they can be successfully used in clinical settings.