Radiation and Alzheimer's Disease (AD)

Abstract

radiation suggested that ionizing radiation was a risk factor for AD. Intranasal inhalation of radon gas could subject the rhinencephalon and hippocampus to damaging radiation that initiated AD [8]. The Alzheimer neurofibrillary tangle is composed of tau, which is one of the most common pathological hallmarks of AD and tau aggregation pathology at Braak stage 1 1 (out of 6 Braak stages) or beyond affects 50% of the population over the age of 45 [9-11]. Our recent review of the effect of the preand post-natal irradiation on animal models and human studies indicated many similarities in hippocampal neuropathology, cognitive impairment and relevant molecular mechanisms between Alzheimer’s disease and early life radiation exposure-induced neuropsychological disorders [12-16]. It suggests that irradiation of the brain in early human life may set abnormal developmental events into motion that starts from tau aggregation at the ages of 40s and 50s, leading to the development of Alzheimer’s Disease at the late stages of human life. At molecular level, preor post-natal irradiation induced brain oxidative stress [15], neuroinflammatory response [16,17], capillary loss or impairment of