Current Alzheimer Research - Volume 12, Issue 8, 2015

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with interrelated molecular, physiological, anatomical, biomarker, and cognitive dimensions. Methods: This article reviews the biological changes (genetic, molecular, and cellular) underlying AD and their correlation with the clinical syndrome. Results: Dementia associated with AD is related to the aberr Read More

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an aging-related multi-factorial disorder to which metabolic factors contribute at what has canonically been considered a centrally mediated process. Although the exact underlying mechanisms are still unknown, obesity is recognized as a risk factor for AD and the condition of insulin resistance seems to be the link between the two pathologies. Using mice with high fat diet (HFD) obesity we dissecte Read More

Dementia is a major global health challenge, as its burden on society will increase with population aging. Given the lack of effective pharmaceutical treatment for common types of dementia including Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, research interest in lifestyle modifications that could prevent, postpone the clinical syndrome or decelerate progression of dementia is growing. Among the various dietary patterns th Read More

The MAPT gene is a risk locus for multiple neurodegenerative diseases, including idiopathic Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. We examined whether altered DNA methylation of the MAPT promoter, with its potential to modulate gene expression, was a common phenomenon in Alzheimer’s disease patients with differing aetiologies. We measured MAPT promoter methylation in a brain tissue cohort of early-onset Read More

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by amyloid-β (Aβ) plaque formation, tau pathology, neurodegeneration and inflammatory processes. Monocytes are involved in inflammation in AD and are recruited to the diseased brain. Recently it has been shown that aberrant epigenetic processes including acetylation are associated with the development of AD. The aim of the pre Read More

Background: The effects of anti-dementia drugs on gait performance in Alzheimer disease (AD) are questionable. The objective of this meta-analysis was to examine the effects of anti-dementia drugs on the mean value and the coefficient of variation (CoV) of stride time among patients with AD while taking into account the type of drugs (i.e., acetylcholinesterase inhibitors [AChEIs] versus memantine) and the walking con Read More

Altered adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AN) plays a role in the etiopathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a disorder characterized by a progressive loss of memory and spatial orientation impairment. Diabetes is shown to be one risk factor for the development of the sporadic form of AD (sAD), which affects >95% of AD patients. Streptozotocin intracerebroventricularily (STZ icv) treated rats, which develop an insulin-re Read More

Background: Bilateral intracerebroventricular (ICV) administration of streptozotocin (STZ) causes Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-type neurodegeneration in rats. The model is increasingly used for investigating pathology and therapeutic strategies for AD. Objective: The present study investigated cognitive abilities in rats infused with STZ-ICV in relation to hippocampal and cortical mitochondrial functions during a period of 60 days. Read More

Research shows beneficial effect of emotion on self-related information in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Our paper investigates whether emotion improves destination memory (e.g., did I tell you about the manuscript?), which is thought to be self-related (e.g., did I tell you about the manuscript?). To this aim, twenty-seven AD patients and thirty healthy older adults told 24 neutral facts to eight neutral faces, eight posi Read More

Cohorts from a defined geographical area enable ad hoc genotype-phenotype correlation studies providing novel and unique insight into disease. We analysed genetic risk factors associated with early and late onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD and LOAD) in a population from Liguria (northern Italy), as part of an ongoing longitudinal study. We screened 37 AD, 8 mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 3 AD and CVD (cerebrovascular d Read More