Toronto Western Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2013 Jan 30;54(1):871-80. doi: 10.1167/iovs.12-10827.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common, incurable, and progressive dementia, characterized by loss of learning and memory and the neuropathologic accumulation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. A number of similarities between AD pathology and several distinct retinal degenerations have been described, particularly with respect to either glaucoma or age-related macular degeneration (AMD), each a leading cause of vision loss and blindness worldwide. Although comparisons between these diseases may provide important new insights into their pathogenic mechanisms, glaucoma and AMD result in markedly different degenerations. Therefore, analyses of the differences and the similarities between these conditions may prove equally productive. Common mechanisms that appear to underlie all three diseases are explored here, as well as potential use of the retina as a biomarker for AD diagnosis and progression. Based on this comparison, past and current efforts to transfer therapeutic strategies between diseases are discussed.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）是一种常见的、无法治愈的、进行性的痴呆症，其特征是学习和记忆丧失，以及大脑中淀粉样斑块和神经原纤维缠结的神经病理学积累。AD 病理学与几种不同的视网膜变性之间存在许多相似之处，特别是与青光眼或年龄相关性黄斑变性（AMD）有关，这两种疾病都是全球导致视力丧失和失明的主要原因。尽管这些疾病之间的比较可能为其发病机制提供重要的新见解，但青光眼和 AMD 导致的退化明显不同。因此，分析这些情况之间的差异和相似性可能同样富有成效。本文探讨了似乎是这三种疾病的共同机制，以及将视网膜作为 AD 诊断和进展的生物标志物的潜在用途。基于这种比较，讨论了过去和当前在疾病之间转移治疗策略的努力。
