Dementia

Dear Colleagues,

Dementias and other neurodegenerative disorders that affect memory, cognition, and behavior are a public health priority across the developed world. With an aging population, it has been estimated that the number of people with dementia will double every 20 years. The impact of dementias on the health, quality of life, autonomy, and dignity of people is well recognized.

The most pressing challenge is the difficulty in discriminating the different forms of dementia and of distinguishing their earliest stages from features of normal brain aging. So far, the exact mechanisms that lead to dementia or to the maintenance of the integrity of cognitive functions are not well understood, although the existence of endogenous compensatory mechanisms, both at a cellular level and at the level of neuronal networks has been proposed.

Today, the diagnosis of dementia, whether at a late or at an early stage, is mostly based upon a clinical evaluation of the subject. The need for screening and early diagnosis tools has focused research on the identification of precocious biological and instrumental markers of each dementing illness. Moreover, in the case of vascular dementia (VaD)—and not for degenerative dementias—it is possible to carry out a preventive strategy based on a closer and more accurate control of vascular risk factors. The identification of patients in an early stage of dementia, with the use of specific clinical and biological markers, is advocated in the attempt to prevent the progression of vascular-related cognitive impairment into overt dementia. Immunocytochemistry and electron microscopy have unveiled the involvement of different neuronal populations and neurotransmitters in the genesis of dementia.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences focuses on dementia and welcomes both original research articles and review papers that deal with the molecular mechanisms of dementia.

Dr. Mariagiovanna Cantone
Dr. Giulio Geraci
Guest Editors

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• vascular dementia
• vascular cognitive impairment
• memory impairment
• biomarkers
• molecular mechanisms
• brain at risk