Synaptic function as a preclinical and experimental medicine readout for disease-modifying therapy in Alzheimer's Disease

Magnesium boosts the memory restorative effect of environmental enrichment in Alzheimer's disease mice

“…A main characteristic of AD is progressive synaptic transmission dysfunction that eventually leads to synaptic loss. 3 Thus, we investigated whether changes in synapse number were associated with different treatments. Synaptophysin is a presynaptic marker that is commonly used to determine the number of synapses.…”

“…Hypotheses of pathology assume that AD is caused by deposition of extracellular amyloid‐β (Aβ) plaques or intracellular tangles composed of hyperphosphorylated microtubule‐associated protein, tau . Hippocampal neurons are primarily affected due to the vulnerability of pyramidal cell synapses at the early stage of AD, which eventually leads to functional impairment in cognition and memory …”

Differential effects of transient and sustained activation of BDNF‐TrkB signaling

“…As such, BDNF participates in a variety of regulatory functions including ocular dominance during development, body weight regulation, emotion, and learning & memory (Chao, ; Huang and Reichardt, ; Bekinschtein et al, ). Because BDNF robustly regulates synaptogenesis and synaptic plasticity in adults and enhances neuronal survival, and that BDNF levels are significantly altered in several neurological diseases and disorders, synaptic repair mediated through BDNF‐TrkB mechanism has been proposed as a disease‐modifying strategy for drug discovery in neurological and psychiatric diseases (Lu et al, ).…”