Alzheimer disease (AD) is characterized as a chronic neurodegenerative disease associated with aging. The clinical manifestations of AD include latent episodes of memory and cognitive impairment, psychiatric symptoms and behavioral disorders, as well as limited activities in daily life. In developed countries, AD is now acknowledged as the third leading cause of death, following cardiovascular disease and cancer. The pathogenesis and mechanism of AD remain unclear, although some theories have been proposed to explain AD, such as the theory of β-amyloid, the theory of the abnormal metabolism of tau protein, the theory of free radical damage, the theory of the inflammatory response, the theory of cholinergic damage, etc. Effective methods to predict, prevent or reverse AD are unavailable, and thus the development of new, efficient therapeutic drugs has become a current research hot spot worldwide. The isolation and extraction of active components from natural drugs have great potential in treating AD. These drugs possess the advantages of multiple targets in multiple pathways, fewer side effects and a long duration of curative effects. This article summaries the latest research progress regarding the mechanisms of natural drugs in the treatment of AD, providing a review of the literature and a theoretical basis for improving the clinical treatment of AD.

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Ovarian cancer is a common gynecologic malignancy with a high fatality rate. Intraperitoneal chemotherapy has been proved as an efficient clinical treatment for disseminated ovarian cancer. However, there are limitations for conventional small molecule drugs to achieve an ideal therapeutic effect. Herein, a synergistic treatment for intraperitoneally disseminated ovarian cancer was achieved by Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)-modified amorphous calcium phosphate loading with doxorubicin (designated as RGD-CaPO/DOX). The engineered calcium-involved nanomedicine augmented the therapeutic effect of DOX by aggravating endoplasmic reticulum stress, calcium overload, and mitochondrial dysfunction, ultimately triggering mitochondrial apoptosis in the SKOV3 (human ovarian cancer) cell line. In an intraperitoneally disseminated tumor model, RGD modification and the weak negative surface potential of the NPs were beneficial for intraperitoneal retention and tumor targeting. Moreover, intraperitoneal injection of RGD-CaPO/DOX NPs resulted in a favorable antitumor effect. The mean survival time of SKOV3-bearing mice was significantly extended from 29 to 59 days with negligible toxicity. Therefore, this study has been designed to provide an effective chemotherapeutic-augmented treatment for intraperitoneally disseminated ovarian cancer.

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