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Hindi Review Article
Alzheimer's Disease-Related Amyloidopathy in Visual Impairment
Xiao Li1,2 and Can Zhang1*1Genetics and Aging Research Unit, Mass General Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MIND), Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, 02129-2060, USA
2Department of Ophthalmology, General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, 28 Fuxing Road, Beijing, 100853, P.R. China
- *Corresponding Author:
- Can (Martin) Zhang, M.D/Ph.D
Harvard Medical School
Genetics and Aging Research Unit
Mass General Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease
Massachusetts General Hospital
114 16th Street Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
Tel: 617-726-6845;
Fax: 617-724-1949;
E-mail: zhang.can@mgh.harvard.edu
Received July 14, 2012; Accepted August 28, 2012; Published August 31, 2012
Citation:Li X, Zhang C (2012) Amyloidopathy in the Eye of Alzheimer's Disease. J Addict Res Ther S5:005. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.S5-005
Copyright: © 2012 Li X, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease and the primary cause of dementia, with no cure available. The pathogenesis of AD is believed to be primarily driven by the accumulation of Aβ, a 4-kDa peptide generated from the amyloid-β precursor protein (APP) through proteolysis. APP is a type-I trans-membrane protein which is constitutively expressed in many tissues, including the eye. Emerging evidence support that visual impairment and several common eye disorders may share common pathogenic determinants with AD. Over the past decade, an increasing number of researches have been utilizing mouse models to investigate the underlying mechanisms of human disorders. Intriguingly, AD animal models present devastating amyloidopathy not only in the brain but also in the eye. This article aims to describe the progress in understanding the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of AD, focusing on the amyloidopathy in visual impairment. Moreover, the studies described in this review support the potential use of non-invasive ocular tests for screening AD patients at an earlier stage and for assessing treatment efficacy of AD.
