Prevention strategies for Alzheimer's disease

Symptomatic treatment during the dementia stage of Alzheimer's disease(AD) cannot delay or halt the progression of this disease. Therefore, prevention in the preclinical stage is likely the most effective way to decrease the incidence of this age-associated neurodegenerative condition, and its associated burden for individuals and society. Age, gender, family history, ApoE4, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, total cholesterol level and physical activity are all used as component of dementia risk score. There have been numerous challenges in conducting primary prevention trials in AD. Enrichment strategies for prevention studies include studying those subjects with more risk factors for AD, such as older age, those with a positive family history of late onset AD, and those who are ApoE4 positive. Each of these strategies is designed to increase the probability of developing AD thereby decreasing the sample size or the duration of follow up. Another strategy would be to target directly the pathophysiology of AD in its preclinical stages and use the biomarkers in prevention trial as surrogate markers. This will be done first in carriers of dominantly inherited early onset AD. As this research takes place networks of memory clinics must prepare to transfer new knowledge to persons interested in a preventive approach to AD. © 2012 Gauthier et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.