title: Insulin and the Future Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.
abstract: Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder leading to dementia. Scientific efforts in the last decade focused mainly on understanding pathophysiology of disease and possible pharmacological approach to alleviate cognitive decline symptoms. Amyloid cascade hypothesis though criticized, remains the leading hypothesis to understand pathogenic mechanisms of cognitive decline. Intriguingly, changes of metabolic activity of cortical neurons are associated with reduced or absent sensitivity to insulin in Alzheimer's disease brain. Insulin is a multipotent hormone regulating, not only glucose levels, but also cell survival and synaptic plasticity mechanisms of neurons. Replacement of insulin might represent a new strategic approach to counteract neurodegeneration. Here we review most of the available data regarding relationship between Alzheimer's disease and insulin and propose new direction to deepen our understanding about insulin involvement in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's dementia.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Semprini
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.forename: Lorena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Belli
authors.forename: Francesco D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Lorenzo
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ragonese
authors.forename: Guglielmo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Manenti
authors.forename: Gian P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Sorice
authors.affiliation: Centro Alzheimer- UOC Neurologia, Dipartimento Medicina dei Sistemi-Università di Roma Tor Vergata. martorana@med.uniroma2.it.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martorana
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D007328:Insulin