New progress in brain aging and its related neurological diseases

Abstract

Brain aging-related neurological diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) have become one of the major diseases endangering the health of old people in China. Although the mechanism of brain aging and pathogenesis of its related neurodegenerative diseases remain unclear, protein pathological studies such as tau, α-synuclein (α-Syn), TDP-43 and amyloid-β protein (Aβ) based on brain tissue bank and case registration database are opening the door to solve the mystery in the brain aging process and unlock pathogenesis of aging-related neurodegenerative diseases. Research on functional neuroimaging including 11C-PIB PET and 18F-FDDNP PET in Alzheimer's disease and 18F-FDG PET in Parkinson's disease, and biomarkers such as total-tau, phosphorylated-tau, and the 42 amino acid fragment of β-amyloid in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease now become hot topics in the field of elderly dementia and movement disorders. Clinicopathological correlation research of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy is also one of focuses in the geriatric neurological diseases.

doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2014.03.004