Galantamine will be approved in the near future. An anti-amyloid vaccine is also in the works. Estrogen appears not to work once the disease has started but may have a protective effect before cognitive decline starts.
Vitamin E appears to play some part in delaying neuronal dysfunction.
None of the drugs now available cures the disease. They appear to retard the progress of Alzheimer's disease in a number of the cases depending when in the process of the disease the medication regimen is started. The difficulty is in identifying the very beginning stages of Alzheimer's disease, distinguishing between normal process of cognitive decline and process of decline associated with other dementias. The MAO-B inhibitors are able to set in motion protective effects on both vascular and neural tissue. See our article on Selegiline and Vitamin E in this series.