scholarly journals Apolipoprotein E4 as a Novel Treatment Target for Alzheimer’s Disease

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 773-783

The importance of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) research has never been greater from a worldwide perspective with the disease becoming increasingly prevalent with life expectancy on the rise. One emerging factor that has presented as a serious risk that still requires more research and understanding is the role and effects of Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4). When present, individuals are three times more likely to develop AD in their lifetime. This is due to ApoE4’s ability to not only increase amyloid beta plaque aggregation ApoE4 also increases hyperphosphorylation of tau causing neurofibrillary tangles. These two factors are the well-known hallmarks for AD, which increase the importance for ApoE4 research as it affects both major aspects. Treatment for AD has always been an issue due to a variety of factors with only a few approved for use today. These approved treatments are only to ease and supress symptoms rather than treating the disease. Dementia symptoms such as memory loss, language problems, motor skills, irritability and paranoia are all symptoms that destroy patient’s ability to function in their communities. Inhibiting ApoE4 and reducing its toxic effects is a promising theory that has the ability to extend AD patients’ lifespan and prolong capable brain function limiting brain tissue degradation.

Author(s):  
Lili Pan ◽  
Yu Ma ◽  
Yunchun Li ◽  
Haoxing Wu ◽  
Rui Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract:: Recent studies have proven that the purinergic signaling pathway plays a key role in neurotransmission and neuromodulation, and is involved in various neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders. With the characterization of the subtypes of receptors in purinergic signaling, i.e. the P1 (adenosine), P2X (ion channel) and P2Y (G protein-coupled), more attentions were paid to the pathophysiology and therapeutic potential of purinergic signaling in central nervous system disorders. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive and deadly neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by memory loss, cognitive impairment and dementia. However, as drug development aimed to prevent or control AD follows a series of failures in recent years, more researchers focused on the neuroprotection-related mechanisms such as purinergic signaling in AD patients to find a potential cure. This article reviews the recent discoveries of purinergic signaling in AD, summaries the potential agents as modulators for the receptors of purinergic signaling in AD related research and treatments. Thus, our paper provided an insight for purinergic signaling in the development of anti-AD therapies.


Dementia ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 147130121882096
Author(s):  
Thomas A Ala ◽  
GaToya Simpson ◽  
Marshall T Holland ◽  
Vajeeha Tabassum ◽  
Maithili Deshpande ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaicheng Li ◽  
Xiao Luo ◽  
Qingze Zeng ◽  
Yerfan Jiaerken ◽  
Shuyue Wang ◽  
...  

AbstractThough sleep disturbance constitutes the risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the underlying mechanism is still unclear. This study aims to explore the interaction between sleep disturbances and AD on brain function. We included 192 normal controls, 111 mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 30 AD patients, with either poor or normal sleep (PS, NS, respectively). To explore the strength and stability of brain activity, we used static amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (sALFF) and dynamic ALFF (dALFF) variance. Further, we examined white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and amyloid PET deposition, representing the vascular risk factor and AD-related hallmark, respectively. We observed that sleep disturbance significantly interacted with disease severity, exposing distinct effects on sALFF and dALFF variance. Interestingly, PS groups showed the dALFF variance trajectory of initially increased, then decreased and finally increased along the AD spectrum, while showing the opposite trajectory of sALFF. Further correlation analysis showed that the WMH burden correlates with dALFF variance in PS groups. Conclusively, our study suggested that sleep disturbance interacts with AD severity, expressing as effects of compensatory in MCI and de-compensatory in AD, respectively. Further, vascular impairment might act as important pathogenesis underlying the interaction effect between sleep and AD.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1802
Author(s):  
Enrique Armijo ◽  
George Edwards ◽  
Andrea Flores ◽  
Jorge Vera ◽  
Mohammad Shahnawaz ◽  
...  

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia in the elderly population. The disease is characterized by progressive memory loss, cerebral atrophy, extensive neuronal loss, synaptic alterations, brain inflammation, extracellular accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques, and intracellular accumulation of hyper-phosphorylated tau (p-tau) protein. Many recent clinical trials have failed to show therapeutic benefit, likely because at the time in which patients exhibit clinical symptoms the brain is irreversibly damaged. In recent years, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have been suggested as a promising cell therapy to recover brain functionality in neurodegenerative diseases such as AD. To evaluate the potential benefits of iPSCs on AD progression, we stereotaxically injected mouse iPSC-derived neural precursors (iPSC-NPCs) into the hippocampus of aged triple transgenic (3xTg-AD) mice harboring extensive pathological abnormalities typical of AD. Interestingly, iPSC-NPCs transplanted mice showed improved memory, synaptic plasticity, and reduced AD brain pathology, including a reduction of amyloid and tangles deposits. Our findings suggest that iPSC-NPCs might be a useful therapy that could produce benefit at the advanced clinical and pathological stages of AD.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 157-158
Author(s):  
Benjamin Olivari ◽  
Christopher Taylor ◽  
Nia Reed ◽  
Lisa McGuire

Abstract Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias often begin with symptoms of mild memory loss, eventually leading to more severe cognitive impairment, functional impairment, and ultimately, death. Data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System core questions related to chronic diseases and from the cognitive decline optional module on subjective cognitive decline (SCD) from the years 2015-2018 were aggregated across the participating 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico for this analysis. Among U.S. adults aged 65 years and older, only 39.8% (95%CI=37.6-42.1) of those experiencing SCD reported discussing their SCD symptoms with a healthcare provider. The prevalence of discussing SCD symptoms with a provider was higher among those with at least one chronic condition than among those with no chronic conditions. 30.7% (28.6-32.8) of those aged 65 years and older reported that their SCD led to functional limitations and 28.8% (26.5-31.2) needed assistance with day-to-day activities. For patients aged 65 years and older, Welcome to Medicare visits and Medicare Annual Wellness Visits are critically underutilized primary care access points. Primary care providers can manage chronic conditions, cognitive health, and initiate referrals for testing. Efforts to promote the use of toolkits and diagnostic codes that are available to primary care providers to initiate conversations about memory loss with patients may be utilized to improve detection, diagnosis, and planning for memory problems. Discussions may lead to earlier detection and diagnosis of cognitive impairment, such as Alzheimer’s disease, or other treatable conditions such as delirium or pressure in the brain and avoid costly hospitalizations.


Author(s):  
Sijia Wu ◽  
Mengyuan Yang ◽  
Pora Kim ◽  
Xiaobo Zhou

Abstract A-to-I RNA editing, contributing to nearly 90% of all editing events in human, has been reported to involve in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) due to its roles in brain development and immune regulation, such as the deficient editing of GluA2 Q/R related to cell death and memory loss. Currently, there are urgent needs for the systematic annotations of A-to-I RNA editing events in AD. Here, we built ADeditome, the annotation database of A-to-I RNA editing in AD available at https://ccsm.uth.edu/ADeditome, aiming to provide a resource and reference for functional annotation of A-to-I RNA editing in AD to identify therapeutically targetable genes in an individual. We detected 1676 363 editing sites in 1524 samples across nine brain regions from ROSMAP, MayoRNAseq and MSBB. For these editing events, we performed multiple functional annotations including identification of specific and disease stage associated editing events and the influence of editing events on gene expression, protein recoding, alternative splicing and miRNA regulation for all the genes, especially for AD-related genes in order to explore the pathology of AD. Combing all the analysis results, we found 108 010 and 26 168 editing events which may promote or inhibit AD progression, respectively. We also found 5582 brain region-specific editing events with potentially dual roles in AD across different brain regions. ADeditome will be a unique resource for AD and drug research communities to identify therapeutically targetable editing events. Significance: ADeditome is the first comprehensive resource of the functional genomics of individual A-to-I RNA editing events in AD, which will be useful for many researchers in the fields of AD pathology, precision medicine, and therapeutic researches.


1993 ◽  
Vol 163 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira Ueki ◽  
Mikihiko Kawano ◽  
Yoshio Namba ◽  
Masanobu Kawakami ◽  
Kazuhiko Ikeda

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 418-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioana-Miruna Balmus ◽  
Alin Ciobica

Alzheimer’s disease leads to progressive cognitive function loss, which may impair both intellectual capacities and psychosocial aspects. Although the current knowledge points to a multifactorial character of Alzheimer’s disease, the most issued pathological hypothesis remains the cholinergic theory. The main animal model used in cholinergic theory research is the scopolamine-induced memory loss model. Although, in some cases, a temporary symptomatic relief can be obtained through targeting the cholinergic or glutamatergic neurotransmitter systems, no current treatment is able to stop or slow cognitive impairment. Many potentially successful therapies are often blocked by the blood–brain barrier since it exhibits permeability only for several classes of active molecules. However, the plant extracts’ active molecules are extremely diverse and heterogeneous regarding the biochemical structure. In this way, many active compounds constituting the recently tested plant extracts may exhibit the same general effect on acetylcholine pathway, but on different molecular ground, which can be successfully used in Alzheimer’s disease adjuvant therapy.


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