Linking estrogen to Alzheimer's disease: an informatics approach.

Epidemiologic studies suggest that estrogen protects against AD. We employ ARROWSMITH, a novel computer-assisted approach, to identify possible links between estrogen and AD that are not explicit in the biomedical literature, by searching for substances or processes that are known targets of estrogen action and that have also been separately studied in relation to AD. Several links appear particularly promising (e.g., estrogen's antioxidant activity) and merit attention by neuroscientists.