title: The key role of mitochondria in Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: Mitochondria are uniquely poised to play a pivotal role in neuronal cell survival or death because they are regulators of both energy metabolism and apoptotic pathways. This review is mainly focused in the discussion of evidence suggesting a clear association between amyloid-beta toxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress and neuronal damage/death in Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology. The knowledge that mitochondrial dysfunction has a preponderant role in Alzheimer's disease opened a window for new therapeutic strategies aimed to preserve/ameliorate mitochondrial function. Based on recent developments in mitochondrial research, increased pharmacological and pharmaceutical efforts have lead to the emergence of 'Mitochondrial Medicine' as a whole new field of biomedical research being this topic discussed in the last section of this review.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Institute of Physiology-Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, 3004-504 Coimbra, Portugal.
authors.forename: P I
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Moreira
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Oliveira
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides