Alzheimer's disease: A role of biomarkers in early diagnosis and evidences from African ethnomedicinal knowledge

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurological ailment that primarily affects the elderly and necessitates an efficient treatment regimen backed up by extensive care. Despite advancement in the in vivo imaging techniques focussing on early diagnosis of reliable biomarkers using novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission topography (PET) scans, AD remains largely unexplained and effective preventative and treatment strategies are still lacking. Consequently, research groups are constantly attempting to improve its early detection, using both invasive and non‐invasive techniques with established core markers like Aβ and Tau (t‐tau and p‐tau) proteins. Unfortunately, African American and other black races are facing an increasing burden of closely associated risk factors, and only a few attempts have been made to find effective complementary and alternative therapies for AD cure and management. A greater epidemiology and natural product research are required to deal with the concurrent rise of dementia among quickly ageing African population, which so far have largely been ignored in addition to a disparity in the AD risk factors. We have tried to bring attention to the issue by reviewing up on this predisposition while generating a perspective on how race may affect AD risk and expression. This article also puts emphasis on finding new research leads from African phytodiversity while presenting several of the important species along with their biological agents found helpful in dementia related symptoms.