JOURNAL of MULTISCALE NEUROSCIENCE

Special Issue information

Dementia is a syndrome of symptoms caused by brain disease, usually chronic or progressive, clinically characterized by multiple impairments of higher cortical functions such as memory, thinking, orientation, and learning. In addition, in the course of dementia, cognitive deficits are observed, which often hinder professional activity, social functioning, and performing daily activities.

Dementia affects 18 million people worldwide. There are many factors that can damage the brain and lead to its occurrence. Undisputed risk factors for dementia are age, low level of education, hypertension, and other vascular factors. Most often, dementia is observed in the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Dementia is also the primary criterion for the diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Vascular dementia (VaD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are also distinguished.

Currently, the causes of dementia among molecular factors, including genetic ones, are sought. Variants in both causative (APP, PSEN1, PSEN2) and risk of dementia disease (APOE) genes can lead to the formation of pathological proteins. These proteins include neurofibrillary tangles made of phosphorylated tau protein or Lewy bodies made of alpha-synuclein. Depending on the pathological proteins possessed, dementias are classified as tauopathies, including AD and FTD, while DLB and Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) belong to alpha-synucleinopathies.

Although we know the molecular basis of dementia diseases better and better, we have new imaging methods, but the diagnosis of these diseases at an early stage is difficult and sometimes impossible. Understanding the causes of dementia in the course of neurodegenerative diseases may contribute to the introduction of new, more effective preventive and therapeutic drugs.