Neuroinflammation and Alzheimer's disease: Lessons learned from 5-lipoxygenase

Abstract

Aside from the well-known amyloid beta and tau pathologies found in Alzheimer's disease (AD), neuroinflammation is a well-established aspect described in humans and animal models of the disease. Inflammatory perturbations are evident not only in neurons, but also in non-neuronal cells and cytokines in the AD brain. Although the amyloid hypothesis implicates amyloid beta (Aβ) as the prime initiator of the AD, brain inflammation in AD has a complex relationship between Aβ and tau. Using our work with the 5-lipoxygenase protein as an example, we suggest that at least in the case of AD, there is an interdependent and not necessarily hierarchical pathological relationship between Aβ, tau and inflammation. © 2014 Versita and Springer-Verlag.