Infections, Inflammation and Neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s Disease 2.0

Dear Colleagues,

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder. With the rapid advancement of gene typing technologies and genome-wide association studies, several AD risk genes have so far been identified and confirmed, including CLU, CR1, PICALM, SORL1, TREM2, and CD33. However, apart from APOE polymorphism, each gene has a limited OR for AD. It is of interest that all these genes are involved in different immune responses against pathogens.

Microbes are emerging risk factors for the disease and substantial new data have been recently published supporting the general hypothesis that virus, some bacteria, and fungi appear to be associated with the clinical history of dementia. Moreover, infections may also be involved in brain inflammation and some aspects of neurodegeneration associated with AD.

As volume 1 of the Special Issue “Infections, Inflammation and Neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's Disease” has been successful, we will be exploring this issue further in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067, IF 5.924, JCR Category Q1). In this second Special Issue, the main topic will be infections, inflammation and neuro-degeneration in Alzheimer's disease. It is dedicated to research articles and reviews regarding infectious agents associated with AD, immune mechanisms involved in the brain defenses, inflammatory processes, and neuro-pathological markers of AD. The emphasis will be on novel AD-related mechanism of infections, brain reaction to these invaders and the brain and systemic inflammatory responses against brain AD-related pathogens and their involvement in neurodegenerative mechanisms. New insights for infection diagnosis, identification of potential pathogenic pathways, therapeutic and preventive measures and vaccination are the focus of this Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Dr. Federico Licastro
Guest Editor

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