Healthy Aging News and Research ⇒ Ageing as a risk factor for neurodegenerative disease: full study

[daviddean]

Here is an interesting study where are discussed neurodegenerative diseases, with potential therapies including NAD+ precursors, mitophagy inducers and inhibitors of cellular senescence. Full text available here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-019-0244-7

Ageing as a risk factor for neurodegenerative disease
Hou Y, Dan X, Babbar M, Wei Y, Hasselbalch SG, Croteau DL, Bohr VA

Abstract
Ageing is the primary risk factor for most neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer disease (AD) and Parkinson disease (PD). One in ten individuals aged ≥65 years has AD and its prevalence continues to increase with increasing age. Few or no effective treatments are available for ageing-related neurodegenerative diseases, which tend to progress in an irreversible manner and are associated with large socioeconomic and personal costs. This Review discusses the pathogenesis of AD, PD and other neurodegenerative diseases, and describes their associations with the nine biological hallmarks of ageing: genomic instability, telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, deregulated nutrient sensing, stem cell exhaustion and altered intercellular communication. The central biological mechanisms of ageing and their potential as targets of novel therapies for neurodegenerative diseases are also discussed, with potential therapies including NAD+ precursors, mitophagy inducers and inhibitors of cellular senescence.

KEY POINTS

- Ageing is the main risk factor for most neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer disease (AD) and Parkinson disease (PD).

- Tissues composed primarily of postmitotic cells, such as the brain, are especially sensitive to the effects of ageing.

- Hallmarks of ageing — genomic instability, telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, deregulated nutrient sensing, stem cell exhaustion and altered intercellular communication — correlate with susceptibility to neurodegenerative disease.

- NAD+ deficiency is a key biomarker for mitochondrial dysfunction, and agents that elevate intracellular NAD+ have shown promising results against many features of neurodegeneration.

Genomic instability, mitophagy, cellular senescence, protein aggregation and inflammation are being explored as therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative disease.

Full text available here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-019-0244-7