Pathological substrates of cognitive decline in alzheimer's disease

Panteleimon Giannakopoulos, Enikö Kövari, Gabriel Gold, Armin Von Gunten, Patrick R. Hof, Constantin Bouras

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

94 Scopus citations

Abstract

The progressive development of Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related lesions such as neurofibrillary tangles,amyloid deposits and synaptic loss within the cerebral cortex is a main event of brain aging.Recent neuropathologic studies strongly suggested that the clinical diagnosis of dementia dependsmore on the severity and topography of pathologic changes than on the presence of a qualitativemarker. However, several methodological problems such as selection biases, case-control design,density-based measures, and masking effects of concomitant pathologies should be taken intoaccount when interpreting these data. In last years, the use of stereologic counting permitted todefine reliably the cognitive impact of AD lesions in the human brain. Unlike fibrillar amyloid depositsthat are poorly or not related to the dementia severity, the use of this method documented thattotal neurofibrillary tangles and neuron numbers in the CA1 field are the best correlates of cognitivedeterioration in brain aging. Loss of dendritic spines in neocortical but not hippocampal areas has amodest but independent contribution to dementia. In contrast, the importance of early dendriticand axonal tau-related pathologic changes such as neuropil threads remains doubtful. Despite theseprogresses, neuronal pathology and synaptic loss in cases with pure AD pathology cannot explainmore than 50% of clinical severity. The present review discusses the complex structure/function relationshipsin brain aging and AD within the theoretical framework of the functional neuropathologyof brain aging.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDementia in Clinical Practice
EditorsPanteleimon Giannakopoulos, Patrick Hof
Pages20-29
Number of pages10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

Publication series

NameFrontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience
Volume24
ISSN (Print)1660-4431
ISSN (Electronic)1662-2804

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Pathological substrates of cognitive decline in alzheimer's disease'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this