Synaptic dysfunctions in Alzheimer’s disease

Katsutoshi Furukawa, Shirong Wen, Nobuyuki Okamura,
Yukitsuka Kudo, Hiroyuki Arai

Center for Asian Traditional Medicine,
Tohoku University Gradulate School of Medicine

It has been reported that synapses play a key role in learning and memory in human brains. Numerous investigations have been performed since Alois Alzheimer reported clinical courses and pathology of a dementing disorder, which is now called “Alzheimer’s disease”. In this manuscript I review several reports, including ours, that investigate synaptic changes and dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. It was reported that synaptic dysfunction and loss is well correlated with cognitive impairment in addition to that the loss and impairment in synapses occurs in an advance to neuronal loss or formations of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. We conclude that synaptic dysfunction is one of the most important events in the pathomechanism of Alzheimer’s disease.

Address correspondence to Dr. Katsutoshi Furukawa, Center for Asian Traditional Medicine, Tohoku University Gradulate School of Medicine (2-1 Seiryo-machi Aobaku, Sendai 980-8575, Japan)