Cited by 477Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsNeuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration MechanismsDementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

The molecular bases of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders

Open access
Maccioni, Ricardo B, Muñoz, Juan P, Barbeito, Luis·2001·Archives of Medical Research

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease, the cause of one of the most common types of dementia, is a brain disorder affecting the elderly and is characterized by the formation of two main protein aggregates: senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, which are involved in the process leading to progressive neuronal degeneration and death. Neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease is a pathologic condition of cells rather than an accelerated way of aging. The senile plaques are generated by a deposition in the human brain of fibrils of the beta-amyloid peptide (Abeta), a fragment derived from the proteolytic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). Tau protein is the major component of paired helical filaments (PHFs), which form a compact filamentous network described as neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). Experiments with hippocampal cells in culture have indicated a relationship between fibrillary amyloid and the cascade of molecular signals that trigger tau hyperphosphorylations. Two main protein kinases have been shown to be involved in anomalous tau phosphorylations: the cyclin-dependent kinase Cdk5 and glycogen synthase kinase GSK3beta. Cdk5 plays a critical role in brain development and is associated with neurogenesis as revealed by studies in brain cells in culture and neuroblastoma cells. Deregulation of this protein kinase as induced by extracellular amyloid loading results in tau hyperphosphorylations, thus triggering a sequence of molecular events that lead to neuronal degeneration. Inhibitors of Cdk5 and GSK3beta and antisense oligonucleotides exert protection against neuronal death. On the other hand, there is cumulative evidence from studies in cultured brain cells and on brains that oxidative stress constitutes a main factor in the modification of normal signaling pathways in neuronal cells, leading to biochemical and structural abnormalities and neurodegeneration as related to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. This review is focused on the main protein aggregates responsible for neuronal death in both sporadic and familial forms of Alzheimer's disease, as well as on the alterations in the normal signaling pathways of functional neurons directly involved in neurodegeneration. The analysis is extended to the action of neuroprotective factors including selective inhibitors of tau phosphorylating protein kinases, estrogens, and antioxidants among other molecules that apparently prevent neuronal degeneration.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/s0188-4409(01)00316-2

Cites

149 of 149 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 150 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Maccioni, R. B., Muñoz, J. P., & Barbeito, L.
Affiliations
  • University of Chile (CL)
  • Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable (UY)
Corresponding author
Maccioni, Ricardo B
Venue
Archives of Medical Research
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2001-09
Volume
32
Issue
5
Pages
367-381
ISSN
  • 0066-6769 (ISSN-L)
  • 0188-4409
OpenAlex
W1985122965
Cited by
474
References
150
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 30
FWCI
2.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Archives of Medical Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Americanae (AECID Library) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, neurodegeneration, amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, amyloid-beta, amyloid precursor protein, tau protein, tau hyperphosphorylation, cyclin-dependent kinase 5, GSK3β, oxidative stress, neuronal cell death, neuroprotective factors, estrogen, antioxidants, protein kinase inhibitors, antisense oligonucleotides, dementia
MeSH terms
Adult, Aged, alpha-Macroglobulins, Alzheimer Disease, Amino Acid Sequence, Apolipoproteins E, Astrocytes, Calcium, Estrogens, Humans, Membrane Proteins, Memory Disorders, Middle Aged, Molecular Sequence Data, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Neurons, Neurotoxins, Nitric Oxide, Parkinson Disease, Protein Processing, Post-Translational, Signal Transduction, Motor Neuron Disease, Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor, Neurofibrillary Tangles, tau Proteins, Cell Death, Age of Onset, Oxidative Stress, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Caspases, Presenilin-1, Presenilin-2

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review