Life Neuroscience

Alzheimer’s disease is a type of neurodegenerative disease that is mistakenly confused with aging and is oftentimes misdiagnosed. One of its main characteristics is the loss of nerve connections and functioning neurons in the cerebral cortex and some subcortical areas. The sheer number of people affected by neurodegenerative diseases globally is startling, but this is at the top of the list. Called memory loss disorder, it starts slowly and gets worse over the years. This seemingly incurable and severely crippling neurodegenerative dementing disorder affects the hippocampus. Changes in this region's physio-anatomical function lead to inability to form new memory traces or entire memory loss that is linked to brain impairment. The pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease has been linked to protein misfolding, where folded amyloid beta proteins in neurons and brain tissues are replaced by larger pathogenic proteins known to aggregate. Clinically recognized early-stage symptoms include language issues, apraxia, challenges with perceiving, writing, dressing, other motor skills, and difficulty with movement coordination. Diagnostic criteria have identified middle-stage symptoms as speech difficulties in the patient, most notably paraphasia, inability to identify family members, unguarded aggression, lack of civility when urinating, and other neuropsychiatric-behavioral changes. Severe symptoms include total dependence on the caregiver and total loss of speech. Even though there are no proven treatments, new research highlights the possible roles that certain dietary components most especially carotenoids may play in both management and prevention. With recent advances in biotechnology, genome editing, and AI-driven precise and personalized medicine, there is hope that the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of carotenoid supplements can be optimized for increased bioavailability along the gut-brain axis and efficient blood-brain barrier crossing. The emerging possibilities present a strong opportunity to enhance the therapeutic impact of carotenoids on Alzheimer’s disease.