Current Alzheimer Research - Volume 13, Issue 8, 2016

Lithium is associated with various effects on immune functions, some of which are still poorly understood. The roles of many cytokines have been characterized in a variety of neurodevelopmental processes including neurogenesis, neuronal and glial cell migration, proliferation, differentiation, synaptic maturation and synaptic pruning. This work aims to evaluate the effects of different doses of lithium (0.02; 0.2 and 2mM) on th Read More

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative illness characterized by the invariant existence of β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Presently approved pharmaceutical approaches offer only marginal efficacy and as yet there is no effective treatment which reverses or arrests the disease. Thus far, drugs targeting any single aspect of disease pathology have proved to be a failure or at best provided very Read More

Background: There is a growing body of pre-clinical evidence suggesting that lithium (Li) may protect neurons from a range of neurotoxic insults, hence the term neuroprotective effects. Does Li have similar effects also in human subjects? Methods: We reviewed the neuroimaging literature investigating the association between Li treatment and brain structure. Results: There is level I evidence for positive association betwee Read More

Background: Lithium shows neuroprotective and neurotrophic effects in vitro and in vivo. Due to its involvement in hippocampal neurogenesis and the interaction with beta-amyloid and neurofibrillary tangle metabolism it has been hypothesized that lithium could have the potential to influence the development of dementia. Method: Using the PubMed database and cross-reference search strategies our aim was to specifically id Read More

Background: Preclinical studies have shown that lithium modifies pathological cascades implicated in certain neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Huntigton`s disease (HD), multiple system atrophy (MSA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A critical question is whether these pharmacodynamic properties of lithium translate into neurodegenerative diseases modifying effects in human subjects. Read More

Lithium is the first choice drug for the long-term prophylaxis of depressive and manic episodes in bipolar disorder (BD). Both experimental and clinical studies show either neuroprotective or neurotoxic effects of lithium on brain function, reflecting the propensity of lithium to affect different brain structures. In most experimental studies, lithium, in therapeutic doses, exerts a favourable influence on various cognitive functions Read More

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder with major clinical hallmarks of memory loss, dementia, and cognitive impairment. Besides the extensive neuron-oriented research, an increasing body of evidence suggests that glial cells, namely astrocytes, microglia, NG2 glia and oligodendrocytes, may play an important role in the pathogenesis of this disease. In the first part of this review, AD pathop Read More

Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) plays a vital role in cholesterol metabolism and its allele polymorphisms have been associated with several diseases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). There are few systematic studies on ApoE polymorphism and its association with AD in Chinese population. To examine this issue, participants included 4251 subjects and 404 AD patients with 390 healthy elderly residing in Chongqing city were gen Read More

ApolipoproteinE4 (apoE4) is the most prevalent genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and as such is a promising therapeutic target. This study examined the extent to which the pathological effects of apoE4 can be counteracted in vivo utilizing an immunological approach in which anti-apoE4 antibodies are applied peripherally by i.p. injections into apoE4-targeted replacement mice. Prerequisites for the successful p Read More

Mitochondrial dysfunctions significantly contribute to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Here, we studied the relationship between AD and changes in the mitochondrial rates of respiration in blood platelets, respiratory chain complexes activity, and coenzyme Q10 plasma concentrations. In intact platelets obtained from AD patients, we observed a decrease in endogenous basal respiration rates, a decreas Read More

Apathy is an early and common neuropsychiatric syndrome in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. In clinical trials, apathy is associated with decreased motor activity that can be monitored by actigraphy. The triple transgenic mouse AD model (3xTgAD) has been shown to recapitulate the biochemical lesions as well as many of the synaptic and cognitive alterations associated with AD. In the present work we found that thes Read More