Neurodegenerative disorders affect around one billion people worldwide. They can arise from a combination of genomic, epigenomic, metabolic, and environmental factors. Aging is the leading risk factor for most chronic illnesses of old age, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. A progressive neurodegenerative process and neuroinflammation occur, and no current therapies can prevent, slow, or halt disease progression. To date, no novel disease-modifying therapies have been shown to provide significant benefit for patients who suffer from these devastating disorders. Therefore, early diagnosis and the discovery of new targets and novel therapies are of upmost importance. Neurodegenerative diseases, like in other age-related disorders, the progression of pathology begins many years before the onset of symptoms. Many efforts in this field have led to the conclusion that exits some similar events among these diseases that can explain why the aging brain is so vulnerable to suffer neurodegenerative diseases. This article reviews the current knowledge about these diseases by summarizing the most common features of major neurodegenerative disorders, their causes and consequences, and the proposed novel therapeutic approaches.
Keywords: Alzheimer; Parkinson; aging; neurodegeneration; neurogenesis; neuroinflammation; novel approaches.