Researchers: Domenica Caponio, Kateřina Veverová, Shi-Qi Zhang, Liu Shi, Garry Wong, Martin Vyhnalek, Evandro F Fang
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most persistent and devastating neurodegenerative disorders of old age, and is characterized clinically by an insidious onset and a gradual, progressive deterioration of cognitive abilities, ranging from loss of memory to impairment of judgement and reasoning. Despite years of research, an effective cure is still not available. Autophagy is the cellular ‘garbage’ clearance system which plays fundamental roles in neurogenesis, neuronal development and activity, and brain health, including memory and learning. A selective sub-type of autophagy is mitophagy which recognizes and degrades damaged or superfluous mitochondria to maintain a healthy and necessary cellular mitochondrial pool. However, emerging evidence from animal models and human samples suggests an age-dependent reduction of autophagy and mitophagy, which are also compromised in AD. Upregulation of autophagy/mitophagy slows down memory loss and ameliorates clinical features in animal models of AD. In this review, we give an overview of autophagy and mitophagy and their link to the progression of AD. We also summarize approaches to upregulate autophagy/mitophagy. We hypothesize that age-dependent compromised autophagy/mitophagy is a cause of brain ageing and a risk factor for AD, while restoration of autophagy/mitophagy to more youthful levels could return the brain to health.
References
- Autophagy in healthy aging and disease.
- Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.
- Autophagy in major human diseases.
- NAD+ in Brain Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders.
- Autophagy and aging: Maintaining the proteome through exercise and caloric restriction.
- A research agenda for ageing in China in the 21st century (2nd edition): Focusing on basic and translational research, long-term care, policy and social networks.
- Hallmarks of Brain Aging: Adaptive and Pathological Modification by Metabolic States.