Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. Despite this, clear pathophysiology for AD has not been confirmed, and effective treatments are still not available. As AD results in a complex disease process for cognitive decline, various theories have been suggested as the cause of AD. Recently, cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) has been suggested to contribute to the pathogenesis of AD, as well as contributing to vascular dementia. Cerebral SVD refers to a varied group of diseases that affect cerebral small arteries and microvessels. These can be seen as white matter hyperintensities, cerebral microbleeds, and lacunes on magnetic resonance imaging. Data from epidemiological and clinical-pathological studies have found evidence of the relationship between cerebral SVD and AD. This review aims to discuss the complex relationship between cerebral SVD and AD. Recent reports that evaluate the association between these diseases will be reviewed.
Highlights
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for about 60% of all dementia cases [1]
This review aims to discuss the complex relationship between AD and cerebral small vessel disease (SVD)
Studies evaluating the associations between cerebral SVD and AD risk based on the clinical AD diagnosis with a cognitive function test usually show contradictory results, because cognitive function can be substantially affected by several factors, such as neurodegenerative disease, genetics, physical activity, education level, alcohol abuse, diabetes and cardiovascular disease [39]
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for about 60% of all dementia cases [1]. As AD results in a complex disease process for cognitive decline, various theories have been suggested as the cause of AD in many epidemiological, biochemical, genetic, and animal studies. Along with the Aβ cascade hypothesis, another major theory is the tau hypothesis, in which the abnormal phosphorylation of tau protein results in paired helical filament tau and neurofibrillary tangles, causing neurodegeneration [3]. Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) refers to a varied group of diseases that affect the cerebral small arteries and microvessels. Small Vessel Disease and AD dysfunction [11] For these reasons, the clinical differentiation of AD from vascular cognitive impairment or vascular dementia can be unclear. Data from epidemiological and clinical-pathological studies have supported a relationship between cerebral SVD and AD, the role of cerebral SVD in causing AD is still unclear. The direction of future research will be presented by exploring the underlying mechanism of cerebral SVD on AD development and hypotheses will be suggested
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