Title:Alzheimer’s Disease Risk and Progression: The Role of Nutritional Supplements and their Effect on Drug Therapy Outcome
Volume: 14
Issue: 2
Author(s): A. Giulietti, A. Vignini, L. Nanetti, L. Mazzanti, R. Di Primio and E. Salvolini
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, Alzheimer, antioxidant, metals, nutritional supplements, PUFAs.
Abstract: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease in the elderly
population. Despite significant advancements in understanding the genetic and molecular basis of
AD, the pathology still lacks treatments that can slow down or reverse the progression of cognitive
deterioration. Recently, the relationship between nutrient deficiency and dementia onset has been
highlighted. AD is in fact a multifactorial pathology, so that a multi-target approach using
combinations of micronutrients and drugs could have beneficial effects on cognitive function in
neurodegenerative brain disorders leading to synaptic degeneration. Primarily, this review examines the most recent
literature regarding the effects of nutrition on the risk/progression of the disease, focusing attention mostly on antioxidants
agents, polyunsaturated fatty acids and metals. Secondly, it aims to figure out if nutritional supplements might have
beneficial effects on drug therapy outcome. Even if nutritional supplements showed contrasting evidence of a likely effect
of decreasing the risk of AD onset that could be studied more deeply in other clinical trials, no convincing data are present
about their usefulness in combination with drug therapies and their effectiveness in slowing down the disease progression.
