The Microtubule-Dissociating Tau in Neurological Disorders

Abstract

Around 24 million of people worldwide have some kind of dementia, and most of them are diagnosed to suffer from Alzheimer's disease (AD). In fact, every seven second a new case of dementia is identified, arriving to the rate of 4,6 new million cases per year. It is expected that by 2040 over 80 million of people will be affected. Neurological diseases are therefore a major public health problem due to the rise in the aging population, only in Europe these disorders cover approximately 35% of the burden of all diseases. In economical terms, brain diseases in Europe cost a total of 386 billion of euros per year, with an average of 829€ per inhabitant. AD and other dementias represent the second-leading cause of brain disorders after affective ones and equal with addiction diseases (Wittchen and Jacobi, 2005). Altogether dementias, and in particular AD represent a huge socio-economical impact, not only regarding the cost from the pharmacological point of view but also familiar cares which increase in an alarming rate in the last stages of the disease. Worthy to mention is the role of the family during the progression of this kind of diseases, relatives have to watch the patient every moment above all during the first lapses of memory and some of them need psychological help to assume the situation and the change in their lifestyle. The incidence and prevalence of this group of diseases explain the need to understand mechanisms underlying dementia to uncover early and discriminative diagnostic markers as well as new therapeutic targets in order to improve the quality of life of these patients and the efficacy of the treatements. For these reasons research in AD is currently considered as a priority. At this time, the pharmacological treatments available aim to enhance the cognitive impairments once the disease is diagnosed, only cholinesterase inhibitors and one NMDA receptor antagonist are commercialized. Despite these products can alleviate the symptomatology, they are far away to constitute an effective remedy to cure or prevent the deleterious effect of the disease. In line of these observations, methods for improving diagnosis are needed, the search of biomarkers and neuroimaging techniques might help to support clinical diagnosis and detect the disease in the earliest stages. The identification of potential genetic and environmental risk factors as well as protective ones may provide a new window of action even if interventions at this level are more complex and controversial (Ballard C et al., 2011).