title: Chronic stress as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: This review aims to point out that chronic stress is able to accelerate the appearance of Alzheimer's disease (AD), proposing the former as a risk factor for the latter. Firstly, in the introduction we describe some human epidemiological studies pointing out the possibility that chronic stress could increase the incidence, or the rate of appearance of AD. Afterwards, we try to justify these epidemiological results with some experimental data. We have reviewed the experiments studying the effect of various stressors on different features in AD animal models. Moreover, we also point out the data obtained on the effect of chronic stress on some processes that are known to be involved in AD, such as inflammation and glucose metabolism. Later, we relate some of the processes known to be involved in aging and AD, such as accumulation of β-amyloid, TAU hyperphosphorylation, oxidative stress and impairement of mitochondrial function, emphasizing how they are affected by chronic stress/glucocorticoids and comparing with the description made for these processes in AD. All these data support the idea that chronic stress could be considered a risk factor for AD.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.forename: Antonio J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Herrera
authors.forename: Rocío M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: de Pablos
authors.forename: Ana María
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Espinosa-Oliva
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sarmiento
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ayala
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Venero
authors.forename: Martiniano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Santiago
authors.forename: Ruth F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Villarán
authors.forename: María José
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Delgado-Cortés
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Argüelles
authors.forename: Josefina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cano
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology; D000818:Animals; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D015213:Neuroimmunomodulation / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology