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Medicina
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Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: Current Knowledge, Advances, and Future...
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Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: Current Knowledge, Advances, and Future Direction

A special issue of Medicina (ISSN 1648-9144).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2021) | Viewed by 11774

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Barbara Spanò

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Santa Lucia Foundation IRCCS, Rome, Italy
Interests: neurosciences; neurology; neuroinflammation; MRI; acupuncture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and is responsible for significant impacts on public health, including through its incidence, prevalence, mortality, and morbidity in addition to effects on the costs of care and overall impact on caregivers and society.

The last two decades of research have significantly contributed to our understanding of AD. However, research successes and failures have also led to debate about the potential deficiencies in our understanding of the pathogenesis of AD disease and potential pitfalls in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment interventions, including device development as well as other creative and innovative unconventional approaches.

Thus, although AD is being intensively investigated, there is an urgent need for more research using various approaches toward gaining a more comprehensive understanding.

The journal Medicina is launching this Special Issue in recognition of the importance of AD in the field of medicine and research.

This Special Issue aims to gather contributions illustrating recent research advances in AD and related dementias with a focus on expanding knowledge of the complex pathology, diagnosis, and management, including in the context of animal models.

Furthermore, we aim to investigate the impact of these diseases on caregivers and society.

We invite you and your co-workers to submit original papers, review articles, or commentaries related to recent advances in these topics.

In addition, we warmly invite you to submit articles reporting on evidence and expectations from innovative disease treatment.

Dr. Barbara Spanò
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Medicina is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Alzheimer’s disease
  • dementia
  • mild cognitive impairment
  • cognitive decline
  • neurodegeneration
  • neuroinflammation
  • amyloid
  • tangles
  • treatment
  • prevention

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 1191 KiB  
Article
Habituation of Somatosensory Evoked Potentials in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Those with Vascular Dementia
by Antonio Currà, Lucio Marinelli, Filippo Cotellessa, Laura Mori, Chiara Avanti, Daniela Greco, Manuela Gorini, Paolo Missori, Francesco Fattapposta and Carlo Trompetto
Medicina 2021, 57(12), 1364; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57121364 - 14 Dec 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2952
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The most prevalent dementia are Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. There is evidence that cortical synaptic function may differ in these two conditions. Habituation of cortical responses to repeated stimuli is a well-preserved phenomenon in a normal brain cortex, [...] Read more.
Background and Objectives: The most prevalent dementia are Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. There is evidence that cortical synaptic function may differ in these two conditions. Habituation of cortical responses to repeated stimuli is a well-preserved phenomenon in a normal brain cortex, related to an underlying mechanism of synaptic efficacy regulation. Lack of habituation represents a marker of synaptic dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to assess the habituation of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) in 29 patients affected by mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD-type) or vascular (VD-type) dementia. Materials and Methods: All patients underwent a clinical history interview, neuropsychological evaluation, and neuroimaging examination. SEPs were elicited by electrical stimulation of the right median nerve at the wrist. Six-hundred stimuli were delivered, and cortical responses divided in three blocks of 200. Habituation was calculated by measuring changes of N20 amplitude from block 1 to block 3. SEP variables recorded in patients were compared with those recorded in 15 age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers. Results: SEP recordings showed similar N20 amplitudes in AD-type and VD-type patients in block 1, that were higher than those recorded in controls. N20 amplitude decreased from block 1 to block 3 (habituation) in normal subjects and in VD-type patients, whereas in AD-type patients it remained unchanged (lack of habituation). Conclusions: The findings suggest that neurophysiologic mechanisms of synaptic efficacy that underneath habituation are impaired in patients with AD-type dementia but not in patients with VD-type dementia. SEPs habituation may contribute to early distinction of Alzheimer’s disease vs. vascular dementia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: Current Knowledge, Advances, and Future Direction)
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18 pages, 1140 KiB  
Article
The Free Association Task: Proposal of a Clinical Tool for Detecting Differential Profiles of Semantic Impairment in Semantic Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
by Gian Daniele Zannino, Roberta Perri, Camillo Marra, Gulia Caruso, Matteo Baroncini, Carlo Caltagirone and Giovanni Augusto Carlesimo
Medicina 2021, 57(11), 1171; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57111171 - 28 Oct 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2249
Abstract
Backround and Objectives: It is widely agreed that patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and patients suffering from semantic dementia (SD) might fail clinically administered semantic tasks due to a different combination of underlying cognitive deficits: namely, degraded semantic representations in SD [...] Read more.
Backround and Objectives: It is widely agreed that patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and patients suffering from semantic dementia (SD) might fail clinically administered semantic tasks due to a different combination of underlying cognitive deficits: namely, degraded semantic representations in SD and degraded representations plus executive control deficit in AD. However, no easy administrable test or test battery for differentiating the semantic impairment profile in these populations has been devised yet. Materials and Methods: In this study, we propose a new easy administrable task based on a free association procedure (F-Assoc) to be used in conjunction with category fluency (Cat-Fl) and letter fluency (Lett-Fl) for quantifying pure representational and pure control deficits, thus teasing apart the semantic profile of SD and AD patients. Results: In a sample of 10 AD and 10 SD subjects, matched for disease severity, we show that indices of asymmetric performance contrasting F-Assoc and each of the two verbal fluency tasks yield a clearly distinguishable discrepancy pattern across SD and AD. We also provide empirical support for the validity of an asymmetry measure contrasting F-Assoc and Cat-FL as an index of control impairment. Conclusions: The present study suggests that the free association procedure provides a pure measure of degradation of semantic representations avoiding the confound of possible concomitant executive deficits. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: Current Knowledge, Advances, and Future Direction)
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8 pages, 296 KiB  
Article
Investigation of the Factors Affecting Quality of Life in Patients with Mild to Moderate Alzheimer’s Disease in Terms of Patients and Caregivers
by Elvan Felekoğlu, Sevgi Özalevli, Hazal Yakut, Rıdvan Aktan and Görsev Yener
Medicina 2021, 57(10), 1067; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57101067 - 6 Oct 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2818
Abstract
Background and Objectives: As with other chronic diseases with limited medical treatment, the most important goal of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) treatment is to provide a better quality of life (QoL). The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the [...] Read more.
Background and Objectives: As with other chronic diseases with limited medical treatment, the most important goal of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) treatment is to provide a better quality of life (QoL). The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the QoL of patients with mild to moderate AD in terms of patients and caregivers. Materials and Methods: Seventy-three home-dwelling patients with AD and their caregivers participated in this prospective, cross-sectional study. The patients were asked about their cognition, depression and a self-rating part of a QoL questionnaire. The caregivers were asked about their patients’ sociodemographic information, sleepiness, activities of daily living and a proxy rating part of a QoL questionnaire. Results: The self-rated QoL was higher than that provided by the proxy rating. Cognition (p = 0.02), sleepiness (p < 0.01) and depression (p = 0.03) were correlated with the self-rated QoL, while the patient’s independence level in activities of daily living was correlated with the proxy-rated QoL (p < 0.05). In regard to predicting QoL according to linear regression analysis, the following were statistically significant: depression was for total score, depression and cognition were for the self-rating and instrumental activities of daily living was for the proxy rating (p < 0.01). Conclusions: While individual factors such as psychology are an important determinant of QoL for patients with AD, objective conditions such as the independence of the patient in daily life are important for the caregiver. While evaluating the quality of life of AD patients, it is important to remember that patients and caregivers have different priorities, and the priorities of both should be taken into account when planning a treatment program. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: Current Knowledge, Advances, and Future Direction)
9 pages, 1559 KiB  
Article
Relation between Alpha-Synuclein and Core CSF Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease
by Victoria Monge-García, María-Salud García-Ayllón, Javier Sáez-Valero, José Sánchez-Payá, Francisco Navarrete-Rueda, Jorge Manzanares-Robles, Ruth Gasparini-Berenguer, Raquel Romero-Lorenzo, María Angeles Cortés-Gómez and José-Antonio Monge-Argilés
Medicina 2021, 57(9), 954; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57090954 - 10 Sep 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2795
Abstract
Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by the presence of β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, while Lewy body dementia (LBD) is characterized by α-synuclein (α-syn) inclusions. Some authors examine α-syn protein in the neurodegeneration process of AD and propose to consider cerebrospinal fluid [...] Read more.
Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by the presence of β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, while Lewy body dementia (LBD) is characterized by α-synuclein (α-syn) inclusions. Some authors examine α-syn protein in the neurodegeneration process of AD and propose to consider cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) α-syn as a possible additional biomarker to the so-called “core” of AD. Objective: To determine whether there is a correlation between α-syn levels and “core” AD biomarkers in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Materials and methods: In total, 81 patients in the early stages of MCI were selected from the outpatient dementia consultation in Alicante General Hospital. Using a cross-sectional case–control design, patients were analyzed in four groups: stable MCI (MCIs; n = 25), MCI due to AD (MCI-AD; n = 32), MCI due to LBD (MCI-LBD; n = 24) and a control group of patients with acute or chronic headache (Ctrl; n = 18). Correlation between CSF protein levels in the different groups was assessed by the Rho Spearman test. Results: We found positive correlations between T-tau protein and α-syn (ρ = 0.418; p value < 0.05) and p-tau181p and α-syn (ρ = 0.571; p value < 0.05) exclusively in the MCI-AD group. Conclusion: The correlation found between α-syn and tau proteins in the first stages of AD support the involvement of α-syn in the pathogenesis of AD. This result may have clinical and diagnostic implications, as well as help to apply the new concept of “precision medicine” in patients with MCI. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: Current Knowledge, Advances, and Future Direction)
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