Drug Delivery Letters - Online First

The most prevalent type of dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD), is typified by the presence of intracellular tau protein neurofibrillary tangles and extracellular amyloid plaques. There are currently about 50 million people who have dementia, and by 2030, that number is predicted to rise to 75 million, placing a significant financial strain on the nation's healthcare system. Novel disease-modifying treatments are desperately needed to combat this illness, given the consequences on patients' quality of life and the mounting financial strain. There are currently no disease-modifying medications available; instead, the majority of available therapies are symptomatic ones such as cholinesterase inhibitors and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockers. The primary focus of therapeutic research against AD has shifted to tau-targeting strategies following multiple unsuccessful attempts to create medications against amyloidopathy. This article first provides an introduction to tauopathy in AD before summarizing current research on the creation of tau-oriented multi-target directed ligands and small compounds as therapies that target tau alteration, aggregation, and degradation. The overall goal of this work is to present a thorough and critical review of small compounds that are being investigated as potential treatment candidates for AD tauopathy.

3D Printing, sometimes referred to as additive manufacturing, has made the concept of personalized medicine a reality. The primary objective of 3D and 4D printing is to produce intricate, customized pharmaceuticals at a reasonable cost. With improvements in materials, resolution, and speed, 3D printing technology is quickly developing. It includes faster construction, cost efficiency through reduced waste, design flexibility for complex structures, and sustainability through optimized material usage. An extensive literature survey was done on 3D and 4D printing of pharmaceuticals using PubMed, Elsevier, ScienceDirect, and Springer. The results were then filtered based on the titles, abstracts, and accessibility of the complete texts. The search engine Google Scholar was accessed for literature data mining. From the data mining, it was found that from the year 2009 to 2024 the number of research publications surged more than 200 times on the current topic. Even though 3-D and 4-D printing technologies have advanced significantly in a short amount of time, the most often used ones are still stereolithography, nozzle-based deposition, inkjet, and selective laser sintering. Their use has been modified for the production of nanoparticles, polypills, tablets, and implants, etc. Pharma's aspirations for tailored medications are being revolutionized by 3D printing, but cost, flexibility, and bioequivalence still need to be investigated. The present review offers a thorough analysis of various 3D and 4D printing methods and emphasizes the major advantages and disadvantages and major key challenges of 3D and 4D printing related to pharmaceuticals. Compared to 3D Printing, 4D printing offers better quality, efficacy, and functionality.