Bridging neurocognitive aging and disease modification: targeting functional mechanisms of memory impairment.
Risk for Alzheimer's disease escalates dramatically with increasing age in the later decades of life. It is widely recognized that a preclinical condition in which memory loss is greater than would be expected for a person's age, referred to as amnestic mild cognitive impairment, may offer the best opportunity for intervention to treat symptoms and modify disease progression. Here we discuss a basis for age-related memory impairment, first discovered in animal models and recently isolated in the medial temporal lobe system of man, that offers a novel entry point for restoring memory function with the possible benefit in slowing progression to Alzheimer's disease.
Gallagher
M
M
Department of Psychological and Brain Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. michela@jhu.edu
Bakker
A
A
Yassa
M A
MA
Stark
C E L
CE
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D000818:Animals; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015195:Drug Design; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D018697:Nootropic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use
D018697:Nootropic Agents