A survey of research in brain iron level and Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

The main pathological feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the extracellular deposition of β-amyloid (Aβ) in the brain, which forms insoluble Aβ plaques, and tau protein hyperphosphorylation in neurons, which forms intracellular fibrillary tangles. So far, none of the drugs targeting Aβ have been successful in the treatment of AD. Some studies have shown that brain iron deposition may be one of the important factors in AD pathogenesis; the distribution of iron deposition has been found to be consistent with the distribution of Aβ senile plaques in the brain. Effectively reducing brain iron load might therefore be a good therapeutic approach to prevent and treat AD.

Keywords

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) / iron overload / β-amyloid (Aβ) / oxidative stress