Alzheimer′s disease and cataracts

Abstract

Alzheimer′s disease (AD) is an age-related progressive neurodegenerative disease.As the most common type of senile dementia disease, AD has no effective methods for early diagnoses. AD is characterized by the deposition of intracellular amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and extracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) in the brain. In addition to allomnesia and cognitive disorder, ocular manifestation such as cataracts exists in AD patients. Studies have shown that amyloid-β (Aβ) is deposited not only in the brain but also in crystalline lens.For its structure and special location, crystalline len is more accessible for imaging than the brain, which can provide a simple, convenient and early diagnosis method for AD. Hence, it is worth investigating the relationship between Alzheimer′s disease and cataracts. Key words: Alzheimer′s disease; Amyloid beta-protein; Cataract