Re-mention of an old neurodegenerative disease: Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of neuropsychiatric disorder, is characterized by neuronal degeneration and inexorably progressing dementia, especially in the elderly population. With a rapidly aging population in both developed and developing countries, AD has emerged as one of the largest growing problems worldwide. Current drugs improve the symptoms of AD, but do not have any profound intervention to delay its onset. Thus, understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the genes tied to AD will be crucial to the development of therapeutic targets. This review will summarize the aetiology, pathology, and the evidence for the genetic components in AD, discuss the proposed amyloid cascade and the following tau hyperphosphorylation hypothesises, oxidative stress mediated neuronal cell death, as well as the function of Retromer complex during the developing of AD. Our laboratory's current research progress and the challenges that still remained will be also highlighted. © 2013 The Author(s).