title: Biomarkers of aggression in dementia.
abstract: Dementia is a clinical syndrome defined by progressive global impairment of acquired cognitive abilities. It can be caused by a number of underlying conditions. The most common types of dementia are Alzheimer's disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Despite the fact that cognitive impairment is central to the dementia, noncognitive symptoms, most commonly described nowadays as neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) exist almost always at certain point of the illness. Aggression as one of the NPS represents danger both for patients and caregivers and the rate of aggression correlates with the loss of independence, cognitive decline and poor outcome. Therefore, biomarkers of aggression in dementia patients would be of a great importance. Studies have shown that different genetic factors, including monoamine signaling and processing, can be associated with various NPS including aggression. There have been significant and multiple neurotransmitter changes identified in the brains of patients with dementia and some of these changes have been involved in the etiology of NPS. Aggression specific changes have also been observed in neuropathological studies. The current consensus is that the best approach for development of such biomarkers may be incorporation of genetics (polymorphisms), neurobiology (neurotransmitters and neuropathology) and neuroimaging techniques.
authors.affiliation: Department for Functional Genomics, Center for Translational and Clinical Research, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Šalata 2, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia. Electronic address: kristina.gotovac@mef.hr.
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gotovac
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Medicine, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Bijenicka, 54, HR 10000, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Matea
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nikolac Perković
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Medicine, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Bijenicka, 54, HR 10000, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Nela
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pivac
authors.affiliation: Department for Functional Genomics, Center for Translational and Clinical Research, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Šalata 2, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia; Department of Neurology, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Kišpatićeva 12, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Fran
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Borovečki
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Aggression; Biomarkers; Dementia; Neuropsychiatric symptoms(NPS)