Elsevier

Neurobiology of Disease

Volume 97, Part B, January 2017, Pages 114-118
Neurobiology of Disease

Review
The role of BDNF in Alzheimer's disease

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbd.2016.05.008Get rights and content

Introduction

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is an important member of the classic neurotrophin family of growth factors, along with nerve growth factor, and neurotrophins 3, 4/5 and 6. It regulates neuronal survival, differentiation and plasticity by activating the receptor tyrosine kinase TrkB and p75 low-affinity neurotrophin receptor (Huang and Reichardt, 2001, Poo, 2001). Reduced BDNF signaling through TrkB leads to impaired spatial memory (Minichiello et al., 1999, Saarelainen et al., 2000, Minichiello, 2009), while overexpression of TrkB enhances memory (Koponen et al., 2004). Further, when signaling through TrkB BDNF enhances long-term potentiation (LTP) of hippocampal synapses (Minichiello, 2009) while through p75 it promotes long-term depression (LTD) (Rosch et al., 2005). These properties of BDNF have led to speculations about its role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) where synaptic and neuronal loss and impaired memory constitute an essential part of the pathology.

Section snippets

Altered BDNF signaling in AD brains

BDNF mRNA and protein levels have been found to be reduced in postmortem brain samples of AD patients (Phillips et al., 1991, Narisawa-Saito et al., 1996, Connor et al., 1997, Ferrer et al., 1999, Holsinger et al., 2000, Hock et al., 2000, Garzon et al., 2002, Fahnestock et al., 2002). Importantly, reduced BDNF levels were reported already at the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage of the disease in one study and were shown to correlate with cognitive function (Peng et al., 2005). This is

Conclusions

Substantial evidence indicates that brain BDNF signaling through the TrkB receptor deteriorates in the AD brain already at an early stage of the disease. Human genetic and experimental animal studies suggest that declined BDNF levels associate with synaptic and neuronal loss and cognitive impairment with aging and AD, but there is little evidence that BDNF signaling would play a major role in the disease specific amyloid or tau pathology. Several approaches to increase brain BDNF levels in

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