Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common
neurodegenerative disorder affecting the elderly people. AD is characterized by
progressive and gradual decline in cognitive function and memory loss. While
familial early-onset AD is usually associated with gene mutations, the etiology
of sporadic late-onset form of AD is largely unknown. It has been reported that
environmental factors and epigenetic alterations significantly contribute to
the process of AD. Our previous studies have documented that chronic hypoxia is
one of the environmental factors that may trigger the AD development and
aggravate the disease progression. In the past few years, we have conducted a
series of investigations to determine the pathological effects of chronic
hypoxia on the onset and development of AD and identify the possible molecule
mechanisms underlying the chronic hypoxia mediated AD pathogenesis. Based on
our studies we propose that epigenetic regulation is the key player in the
chronic hypoxia-mediated neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, which may represent
new opportunity for the therapeutic intervention of this disease.