Pro-Oxidants and Antioxidants Imbalance in Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible progressive neurological disorder that is manifested by gradual deterioration of cognitive reserve and impairment of activities in daily living. There are 50 million AD patients globally and this number will likely be doubled by 2050 [1]. Two dominant hypotheses, the amyloid-␤ (A␤) cascade [2] and the tau propagation [3], were considered causally linked to the progression of AD. However, a disease-modifying drug for AD is not available, although significant number of clinical trials based on A␤ cascade and tau phosphorylation are already being conducted [4,5]. A recent report based on a meta-analysis on the effect of anti-A␤ drugs on brain revealed that ␤-secretase inhibitors like verubecestat accelerated hippocampal and whole brain atrophy compared to changes observed after placebo administration [6].Therapeutic development is urgently required based on potential role of oxidative stress (OS) in AD as early causal process [7][8][9]. OS is identified