Small molecules are winning the race against neurodegeneration—but not the ones we expected

Antibody therapies clear plaques. Biologics dampen inflammation. But the drugs quietly advancing through clinical trials are old-school small molecules: pills you swallow that cross the blood-brain barrier and hit mitochondrial dynamics or protein homeostasis. After twenty years of chasing regeneration, drug developers are rediscovering that some biological problems yield better to protection than repair.