Peter Wostyn

Science Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive and memory deterioration, as well as changes in personality, behavioral disturbances and an impaired ability to perform activities of daily living. AD is known to be the most common type of dementia. Despite decades of intensive research, the precise etiology of AD remains elusive. The majority of AD cases are sporadic AD with late onset and seem to result from a complex interaction of multiple genetic and environmental factors. There is a strong age-dependence of the disease. Its prevalence rises exponentially, doubling approximately every 5 years between the ages of 65 and 85. With the rapidly aging population, AD represents one of the most frequent, major public health problems. Principal neuropathological hallmarks of AD include extracellular senile plaques containing β-amyloid derived from β-amyloid precursor protein after sequential cleavage by β-secretase and γ-secretase, and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles caused by abnormally phosphorylated tau protein. Despite major advances in understanding the molecular etiology of the disease, progress in the clinical treatment of AD patients has been extremely limited.