The beginnings of Alzheimer's Disease: A review on inflammatory, mitochondrial, genetic and epigenetic pathways

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common cause of sporadic dementia, as it affects 60% of cognitive impaired patients; it commonly affects middle and late life, and it is considered an age-related disease. Early-onset familial AD is associated with mutations of the genes encoding amyloid precursor protein (APP), presenilin 1 (PS-1), or PS-2, resulting in the overproduction of amyloid beta-protein. Epidemiological and case-control studies have led to the identification of several risk factors for sporadic AD. The most concrete genetic risk factor for AD is the epsilon4 allele of apolipoprotein E gene (APOE). In addition, several genes such as CTNNA3, GAB2, PVRL2, TOMM40, and APOC1 are known to be the risk factors that contribute to AD pathogenesis. A direct role of interaction between genetic and environmental determinants has been proposed in an epigenetic dynamic for environmental factors operating during the preconceptual, fetal and infant phases of life. Also the the association between mtDNA inherited variants and multifactorial diseases and AD has been investigated by a number of studies that, however, didn't reach a general consensus on the correlation between mtDNA haplogroups and AD.