Title:Insulin and the Future Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease
Volume: 15
Issue: 6
Author(s): Roberta Semprini, Giacomo Koch, Lorena Belli, Francesco D. Lorenzo, Mauro Ragonese, Guglielmo Manenti, Gian P. Sorice and Alessandro Martorana
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Alzheimer’s disease, Diabetes mellitus, insulin, neurodegeneration amyloid-beta, tau.
Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder leading to dementia. Scientific efforts in the last decade
focused mainly on understanding pathophysiology of disease and possible pharmacological approach to alleviate
cognitive decline symptoms. Amyloid cascade hypothesis though criticized, remains the leading hypothesis to understand
pathogenic mechanisms of cognitive decline. Intriguingly, changes of metabolic activity of cortical neurons are associated
with reduced or absent sensitivity to insulin in Alzheimer’s disease brain. Insulin is a multipotent hormone regulating, not
only glucose levels, but also cell survival and synaptic plasticity mechanisms of neurons. Replacement of insulin might
represent a new strategic approach to counteract neurodegeneration. Here we review most of the available data regarding
relationship between Alzheimer’s disease and insulin and propose new direction to deepen our understanding about
insulin involvement in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s dementia.
