Gold and silver nanoparticles in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diagnostics and treatments

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) impose substantial medical and public health burdens on people worldwide and represent one of the major threats to human health. The prevalence of these age‐dependent disorders is dramatically increasing over time, a process intrinsically related to a constantly rising percentage of the elderly population in recent years. Among all the NDs, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are considered the most debilitating as they cause memory and cognitive loss, as well as severely affecting basic physiological conditions such as the ability to move, speak, and breathe. There is an extreme need for new and more effective therapies to counteract these devastating diseases, as the available treatments are only able to slow down the pathogenic process without really stopping or resolving it. This review aims to elucidate the current nanotechnology‐based tools representing a future hope for NDs treatment. Noble metal nano‐systems, that is, gold and silver nanoparticles (NPs), have indeed unique physicochemical characteristics enabling them to deliver any pharmacological treatment in a more effective way within the central nervous system. This can potentially make NPs a new hope for reversing the actual therapeutic strategy based on slowing down an irreversible process into a more effective and permanent treatment. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are emerging as promising tools in the application for treating neurodegenerative diseases. Thanks to their unique properties, these nanoparticles (NPs) can be used for various purposes in this field of medicine. In the last years, more efforts are involved in the application of NPs as new agents both for early diagnosis and therapy of neurodegenerative diseases, thanks to their ability to overcome the Blood–Brain Barrier. Their unique physicochemical properties make them powerful tools for the development of a new nanoplatform to contrast Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.