Towards a Consensus on Alzheimer's Disease Comorbidity?

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Gerontology
• Public Health

Background:

• Alzheimer's disease (AD) often presents with co-occurring pathologies, impacting patient care and disease progression.
• Understanding these comorbidities is crucial for a holistic approach to AD management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review diseases clinically associated with Alzheimer's disease.
• To identify and quantify the co-occurrence of AD with a broad spectrum of common pathologies using PubMed data.
• To highlight potential shared risk factors and therapeutic avenues for AD and its comorbidities.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of diseases commonly associated with AD in clinical settings.
• PubMed database query analyzing co-occurrence of AD with 400 common pathologies.
• Correlation analysis of query results with existing clinical data and publications.

Main Results:

• Significant associations found between AD and schizophrenia, sleep disorders, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (atherosclerosis, hypertension, heart failure, fibrillation), obesity, metabolic syndrome, arthritis, osteoporosis, glaucoma, and respiratory diseases (COPD, asthma).
• AD also showed associations with HIV, herpes, alcoholism, pain, migraine, pneumonia, dyslipidemia, hearing loss, and tobacco smoking.
• Co-occurrence with other neurodegenerative diseases was noted but often disregarded in previous literature.

Conclusions:

• The study confirms and expands the list of diseases frequently comorbid with Alzheimer's disease.
• Identified comorbidities often involve degenerative processes potentially exacerbated by oxidative stress, suggesting a role for antioxidants.
• Findings emphasize the importance of considering a wide range of associated conditions in AD research and clinical practice.