Inflammation, cytokines, immune response, apolipoprotein E, cholesterol, and oxidative stress in alzheimer disease: Therapeutic implications

Alzheimer disease (AD) is a heterogeneous and progressive neurodegenerative disease, which in Western society mainly accounts for senile dementia. Today many countries have rising aging populations and are facing an increased prevalence of age-related diseases, such as AD, with increasing health-care costs. Understanding the pathophysiology process of AD plays a prominent role in new strategies for extending the health of the elderly population. Considering the future epidemic of AD, prevention and treatment are important goals of ongoing research. However, a better understanding of AD pathophysiology must be accomplished to make this objective feasible. In this paper, we review some hot topics concerning AD pathophysiology that have an important impact on therapeutic perspectives. Hence, we have focused our attention on inflammation, cytokines, immune response, apolipoprotein E (APOE), cholesterol, oxidative stress, as welll as exploring the related therapeutic possibilities, i.e., nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, cytokine blocking antibodies, immunotherapy, diet, and curcumin. © 2010 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.