title: Is amyloid-β harmful to the brain? Insights from human imaging studies.
abstract: Although the amyloid-β protein associated with the Alzheimer's disease plaque has been detectable in living people for over a decade, its importance in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease is still debated. The frequent presence of amyloid-β in the brains of cognitively healthy older people has been interpreted as evidence against a causative role. If amyloid-β is crucial to the development of Alzheimer's disease, it should be associated with other Alzheimer's disease-like neurological changes. This review examines whether amyloid-β is associated with other biomarkers indicative of early Alzheimer's disease in normal older people. The preponderance of evidence links amyloid-β to functional change, progressive brain atrophy, and cognitive decline. Individuals at greatest risk of decline seem to be those with evidence of both amyloid-β and findings suggestive of neurodegeneration. The crucial question is thus how amyloid-β is related to brain degeneration and how these two processes interact to cause cognitive decline and dementia.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, USA jagust@berkeley.edu.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jagust
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006801:Humans; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; ageing; amyloid; biomarkers; neurodegeneration