Cytokine-induced Neurogenesis for Alzheimer's Disease and Frontotemporal Dementia

Abstract

: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are two major causes of dementia. These diseases are both progressive neurodegenerative diseases whereas no curative treatment has not yet been established. Regenerative approaches have been extensively researched for AD and FTD, but they are still in early phase of pre-clinical trials. We show here, for the first time, that cytokines such as hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF), insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), and progranulin (PGRN) can induce the neurogenesis of GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons in cerebral cortex and hippocampi of AD and FTD patients. We also showed the evidence, for the first time, that the atrophied hippocampi were significantly regenerated by cytokine-induced neurogenesis in AD and FTD patients, which was confirmed by MRI study and neurophysiological evaluations. We therefore explored the potentiality of cytokine cocktail treatment for AD and FTD and showed that cytokine-induced neurogenesis is a novel promising strategy to cure AD and FTD.