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      Impact of social relationships on Alzheimer’s memory impairment: mechanistic studies

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          Abstract

          Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by progressive memory and neuronal loss culminating in cognitive impairment that not only affects a person’s living ability but also becomes a society’s as well as a family’s economic burden. AD is the most common form of dementia in older persons. It is expected that the number of people with AD dementia will increase dramatically in the next 30 years, projecting to 75 million in 2030 and 131.5 million in 2050 worldwide. So far, no sufficient evidence is available to support that any medicine is able to prevent or reverse the progression of the disease. Early studies have shown that social environment, particularly social relationships, can affect one’s behavior and mental health. A study analyzing the correlation between loneliness and risk of developing AD revealed that lonely persons had higher risk of AD compared with persons who were not lonely. On the other hand, it has been reported that we can prevent cognitive decline and delay the onset of AD if we keep mentally active and frequently participate in social activities. In this review, we focus on the impact of social behaviors on the progression of cognitive deficit in animal models of AD with a particular emphasis on a mechanistic scheme that explains how social isolation exacerbates cognitive impairment and how social interaction with conspecifics rescues AD patients’ memory deficit.

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          Epigenetic regulation of gene expression: how the genome integrates intrinsic and environmental signals.

          Cells of a multicellular organism are genetically homogeneous but structurally and functionally heterogeneous owing to the differential expression of genes. Many of these differences in gene expression arise during development and are subsequently retained through mitosis. Stable alterations of this kind are said to be 'epigenetic', because they are heritable in the short term but do not involve mutations of the DNA itself. Research over the past few years has focused on two molecular mechanisms that mediate epigenetic phenomena: DNA methylation and histone modifications. Here, we review advances in the understanding of the mechanism and role of DNA methylation in biological processes. Epigenetic effects by means of DNA methylation have an important role in development but can also arise stochastically as animals age. Identification of proteins that mediate these effects has provided insight into this complex process and diseases that occur when it is perturbed. External influences on epigenetic processes are seen in the effects of diet on long-term diseases such as cancer. Thus, epigenetic mechanisms seem to allow an organism to respond to the environment through changes in gene expression. The extent to which environmental effects can provoke epigenetic responses represents an exciting area of future research.
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            From social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millennium

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              Alzheimer disease in the United States (2010-2050) estimated using the 2010 census.

              To provide updated estimates of Alzheimer disease (AD) dementia prevalence in the United States from 2010 through 2050. Probabilities of AD dementia incidence were calculated from a longitudinal, population-based study including substantial numbers of both black and white participants. Incidence probabilities for single year of age, race, and level of education were calculated using weighted logistic regression and AD dementia diagnosis from 2,577 detailed clinical evaluations of 1,913 people obtained from stratified random samples of previously disease-free individuals in a population of 10,800. These were combined with US mortality, education, and new US Census Bureau estimates of current and future population to estimate current and future numbers of people with AD dementia in the United States. We estimated that in 2010, there were 4.7 million individuals aged 65 years or older with AD dementia (95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.0-5.5). Of these, 0.7 million (95% CI = 0.4-0.9) were between 65 and 74 years, 2.3 million were between 75 and 84 years (95% CI = 1.7-2.9), and 1.8 million were 85 years or older (95% CI = 1.4-2.2). The total number of people with AD dementia in 2050 is projected to be 13.8 million, with 7.0 million aged 85 years or older. The number of people in the United States with AD dementia will increase dramatically in the next 40 years unless preventive measures are developed.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                yahsin@mail.ncku.edu.tw
                cyrus804tw@gmail.com
                (886)-6-2353535 , powu@mail.ncku.edu.tw
                Journal
                J Biomed Sci
                J. Biomed. Sci
                Journal of Biomedical Science
                BioMed Central (London )
                1021-7770
                1423-0127
                11 January 2018
                11 January 2018
                2018
                : 25
                : 3
                Affiliations
                ISNI 0000 0004 0532 3255, GRID grid.64523.36, Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, , National Cheng Kung University, ; No.1, Ta-Shieh Rd, Tainan City, 701 Taiwan
                Article
                404
                10.1186/s12929-018-0404-x
                5764000
                29325565
                c6ff9556-dbc0-4a29-a397-08ceffa52463
                © The Author(s). 2018

                Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

                History
                : 13 October 2017
                : 2 January 2018
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004663, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan;
                Award ID: MOST104-2321-B-006-029
                Award Recipient :
                Categories
                Review
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2018

                Molecular medicine
                alzheimer’s disease,social isolation,hippocampus,cognition,epigenetic,bdnf,neurogenesis

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