FERRER ABIZANDA, ISIDRO
FUNDACION IDIBELL
Spain
EPIGENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS BRACING COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT AND LATE-ONSET DEPRESSION IN ELDERLY AND EARLY STAGES OF ALZHEIMER DISEASE
INSTITUTO DE SALUD CARLOS III. ACCIÓN ESTRATEGICA EN SALUD. (PLAN ESTATAL DE INVESTIGACIÓN CIENTÍFICA Y TÉCNICA Y DE INNOVACIÓN 2013-2016)
605,000
01/01/2015
3.0
Alzheimer's disease & other dementias
Late-onset depression and cognitive impairment are very common in the elderly and cause a great deal of misery, in addition to representing a social and economic concern. Many of these individuals develop dementia of Alzheimer type and there is the suspicion that late-depression and mild cognitive impairment are linked by the same pathogenic process. The concept of Alzheimers disease (AD) has changed over the years and today it is known that the first changes of AD-related pathology don’t start in the entorhinal and transentorhinal cortex, but rather it is the case that the first neurofibrillary tangles, a characteristic lesion of AD, typically appear in selected nuclei of the brainstem including the locus coeruleus. About 85% per cent of individuals aged 65 years old have AD-related pathology at the so-called Braak and Braak stages I and II, but only 5% have more extended lesions causative of dementia.