Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Calgary, Canada; Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Canada.
Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Canada.
Front Neuroendocrinol. 2023 Apr;69:101061. doi: 10.1016/j.yfrne.2023.101061. Epub 2023 Feb 8.
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia, observed at a higher incidence in women compared with men. Treatments aimed at improving pathology in AD remain ineffective to stop disease progression. This makes the detection of the early intervention strategies to reduce future disease risk extremely important. Isolation and loneliness have been identified among the major risk factors for AD. The increasing prevalence of both loneliness and AD emphasizes the urgent need to understand this association to inform treatment. Here we present a comprehensive review of both clinical and preclinical studies that investigated loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for AD. We discuss that understanding the mechanisms of how loneliness exacerbates cognitive impairment and AD with a focus on sex differences will shed the light for the underlying mechanisms regarding loneliness as a risk factor for AD and to develop effective prevention or treatment strategies.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）是痴呆的主要病因，女性的发病率明显高于男性。旨在改善 AD 病理的治疗方法仍然无效，无法阻止疾病进展。因此，检测早期干预策略以降低未来疾病风险变得非常重要。孤独和隔离被确定为 AD 的主要危险因素之一。孤独和 AD 的发病率都在增加，这强调了迫切需要了解这种关联以提供治疗信息。在这里，我们对临床和临床前研究进行了全面回顾，这些研究调查了孤独和社会隔离作为 AD 的危险因素。我们讨论了理解孤独如何加剧认知障碍和 AD 的机制，重点是性别差异，这将为孤独作为 AD 的危险因素的潜在机制以及开发有效的预防或治疗策略提供启示。
