Preventing Late-Onset Dementia: Mechanisms, Modifiable Risk Factors, and Interventions

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About this Research Topic

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Background

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and structural and volumetric changes to the brain at cellular and morphological levels. Dementia due to AD as a clinical syndrome is characterized by impairments in cognitive abilities, changes in behavior, and problems with daily living functioning. Currently, there is no disease-modifying treatment available for dementia. Therefore, prevention methods are under investigation as they hold great promise in curbing the rising number of AD cases worldwide. Preventive approaches may delay AD’s clinical manifestation, halt its progression, or possibly even stop or delay AD-related pathological and neurodegenerative processes. There is, however, no consensus on empirically driven, manageable, and available prevention strategies that can be rolled out at a community level.

The primary aim of this Research Topic is to provide a publishing platform for empirically examined preventive or treatment interventions aimed at individuals at higher risk of dementia. Currently, it is projected that up to 40% of dementia risk factors are modifiable. As the most common cause of dementia, AD research is the primary focus of this project but studies on prevention or treatment of other types of dementia are also welcomed, at preclinical and prodromal stages (e.g., normal cognitive or behavioral manifestations, mild cognitive impairment stage, respectively). Some risk factors of interest include lifestyle, psychological, social, and biophysiological factors. Translational human studies are critical in understanding the effects of risk factor modification on the prevention of neurodegeneration and its clinical trajectory. While “modifiable risk factors” of dementia are mostly supported by previous research, there are many caveats in our understanding of how (underlying mechanisms), what (e.g., duration of intervention, frequency, and intensity), and in which group (e.g., age and gender of the participants) interventions should be conducted to optimize the outcomes. Therefore, our goal is to advance and promote dementia prevention studies, using human clinical trials and experimental design studies.

This Research Topic welcomes manuscripts investigating modifiable risk factors that are examined using translational prevention methods aimed at delaying or preventing AD and its related dementias. This Research Topic will include only human studies with a clinical trial or experimental design examining the effects of preventive methods on future risk, delaying the clinical diagnosis, or modifying the course of the disease progression.

Themes which would be welcome include:
• Lifestyle factors including physical exercise, sleep, and environmental toxins
• Psychotherapeutic interventions aimed at depressions, stress, trauma, personality factors, improving cognitive reserve (cognitive training exercises)
• Social factors (e.g., social engagements, leisure activities, volunteering, community services, etc.)
• Biophysiological Interventions (e.g., hormones, infections, microbes and viruses, gut microbiome, treatment of age-related hearing loss, brain stimulations)

Please note, we are interested in original research or systematic and meta-analysis manuscripts examining empirical data from clinical trials and experimentally designed studies. We will consider review manuscripts only if they provide a novel understanding of previous findings or a new framework/model explaining the prevention of AD dementia.

Conflict of Interest:
Topic Editor Prof. Hamid Sohrabi is the director of Medrotech.com.au and SMRATMinds WA, Australia.
Topic Editor Prof. Ralph Martins is the director of Medrotech.com.au and SMRATMinds WA, Australia, and a scientific officer and shareholder of Alzhyme Pty Ltd.
Topic Editor Prof. Paul Maruff is the Chief Innovation Officer at Cogstate, Australia.
The other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regard to the Research Topic subject.

Keywords: Prevention, Dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, preclinical, prodroml, lifestyle factors, biomedical interventions, Psychosocial factors, Clinical Trial, Experimental studies

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