Toward a new nosology of neurodegenerative diseases

Abstract

New “omic” technologies are revealing shared and distinct biological pathways within and across neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs), allowing a better understanding of endophenotypes that exceeds the boundaries of the current diagnostic criteria. Moreover, a diagnostic framework is needed that can accommodate the co‐pathology and the clinical overlap and heterogeneity of NDDs. Apart from dissecting the reasons for a revolution in how we conceive NDD, this article aims to prompt a change in how we diagnose and classify NDD, drafting a general scheme for a new nosology. As identifying a cause is the key to using the term “disease” properly, we propose using a tridimensional classification based on three axes: (1) etiology or pathogenic mechanism, (2) pathology markers and molecular biomarkers, (3) anatomic–clinical; and three hierarchical levels of etiology: (1) genetic/sporadic (2) cellular pathways and processes, and function of fluidic brain systems, and (3) risk factors.

Closest horizons of Hsp70 engagement to manage neurodegeneration

“…ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) may be regarded together because of similar genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and transcriptomics ( Menéndez-González, 2023 ). Mandrioli et al (2019) also mention that both diseases are accompanied by neuroinflammation with inflammasomes.…”