Abstract
Copper is an essential nutrient for plants, animals, and humans because it is an indispensable component of several essential proteins and either lack or excess are harmful to human health. Recent studies revealed that the breakdown of the regulation of copper homeostasis could be associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia. Copper accumulation occurs in human aging and is thought to increase the risk of AD for individuals with a susceptibility to copper exposure. This review reports that one of the leading causes of copper accumulation in the environment and the human food chain is its use in agriculture as a plant protection product against numerous diseases, especially in organic production. In the past two decades, some countries and the EU have invested in research to reduce the reliance on copper. However, no single alternative able to replace copper has been identified. We suggest that agroecological approaches are urgently needed to design crop protection strategies based on the complementary actions of the wide variety of crop protection tools for disease control.
Highlights
Copper is an essential trace metal controlling human physiology
In the same month, China approved for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) treatment Oligomannate, and a phase III study was planned for starting in 2020 in China, the United States and Europe to authorize the marketing of the drug [7]
Consolidate knowledge indicates that the APP/Aβ system is central for AD pathogenesis, and a recent view proposes that the APP/Aβ system is centrally involved in neuronal copper transport at the synapses and in processes of learning and memory [16,17,18]
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. The World Health Organization (WHO) [1] estimated the ranking of the top seven countries in the number of deaths caused by AD. In the same month, China approved for AD treatment Oligomannate, and a phase III study was planned for starting in 2020 in China, the United States and Europe to authorize the marketing of the drug [7] Besides these encouraging results that have still to be fully assessed, recent studies, pointing to prevention strategies, showed the predictive accuracy of the ‘LIfestyle for BRAin Health’ (LIBRA) score for dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a prodromal stage of the disease [8,9,10,11]. The latest evidence points out to the multifactorial etiology of AD and the potential of preventive strategies to reduce the prevalence of the disease
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