Computational Investigations and Experimental Validation of Alzheimer’s Disease Related Pathways With Special Relevance to Dna Repair and Autophagy

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), also known as senile dementia, is a neurodegenerative disease and the most common form of chronic dementia that shows progressive loss of memory, synaptic function, cognitive capacity and atrophy in different brain areas in the elderly. Epidemiological studies highlighted AD as a multifactorial disease i.e.; it occurs due to complex interactions between various intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The pathology of AD involves a combination of intrinsic genomic susceptibility and environmental factors. It entails a continual dynamic interplay between dysfunctional pathways and central homeostatic networks of nerve cells. The neuropathological changes of AD include Aβ plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT). Innumerable evidences suggest that an autophagy-or DNA damage and repair (DDR) pathway-dysfunction further promote Aβ plaques and NFT.