In the latest Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) report, the global number of patients with dementia is estimated to be around 47 million and most of them are affected by Alzheimer’s disease. These numbers are soaring and, to date, there are no available treatments effective in slowing down the progression of the disease.

One factor determining this situation is related to the fact that the patients recruited in clinical trials are generally in advanced stages of the disease.To take steps forward it is therefore necessary to understand what happens in the initial stages of the disease, when the patient’s cognitive functions are still intact although the disease is advancing.The research team led by Prof. Marcello D’Amelio, Head of the Molecular Neuroscience Research Unit of the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, has published recent works where a dopaminergic neurons rich region of the brain, is identified as an area particularly susceptible to degeneration in the early stages of the disease. Further studies dedicated to this topic will have possible important therapeutic repercussions.