Impaired Cerebral Autoregulation-A Common Neurovascular Pathway in Diabetes may Play a Critical Role in Diabetes-Related Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of progressive degenerative dementia. The hallmark pathological features include beta amyloid deposition and neurofibrillary tangles. There has been a strong association of AD with Diabetes (DM) based on human studies and animal experiments. The hallmark features of AD seem to have an exaggerated presence in AD with DM, especially type 2 diabetes (T2D). In addition, insulin resistance is a common feature in both diseases and as such AD has been called type 3 diabetes. Furthermore, impairment of cerebral autoregulation has been reported in both animal and human diabetic subjects. Cerebral vascular impairment has also been implicated in the pathophysiology of AD. There is an urgent need to develop animal models of AD and DM to explore the neuropathological mechanisms of these disease and utilize such models to develop treatment strategies.