Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Defective Lysosomal Lipid Catabolism as a Common Pathogenic Mechanism for Dementia

  • Review Paper
  • Published:
NeuroMolecular Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Dementia poses an ever-growing burden to health care and social services as life expectancies have grown across the world and populations age. The most common forms of dementia are Alzheimer’s disease (AD), vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and Lewy body dementia, which includes Parkinson’s disease (PD) dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Genomic studies over the past 3 decades have identified variants in genes regulating lipid transporters and endosomal processes as major risk determinants for AD, with the most significant being inheritance of the ε4 allele of the APOE gene, encoding apolipoprotein E. A recent surge in research on lipid handling and metabolism in glia and neurons has established defective lipid clearance from endolysosomes as a central driver of AD pathogenesis. The most prevalent genetic risk factors for DLB are the APOE ε4 allele, and heterozygous loss of function mutations in the GBA gene, encoding the lysosomal catabolic enzyme glucocerebrosidase; whilst heterozygous mutations in the GRN gene, required for lysosomal catabolism of sphingolipids, are responsible for a significant proportion of FTD cases. Homozygous mutations in the GBA or GRN genes produce the lysosomal storage diseases Gaucher disease and neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis. Research from mouse and cell culture models, and neuropathological evidence from lysosomal storage diseases, has established that impaired cholesterol or sphingolipid catabolism is sufficient to produce the pathological hallmarks of dementia, indicating that defective lipid catabolism is a common mechanism in the etiology of dementia.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

Not applicable.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

References

Download references

Funding

This study was funded by Project Grants APP1100626 and APP1163429 from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (A.S.D.). J.Y.L. and O.C.M. are supported by Research Training Program scholarships (Department of Education, Skills and Employment, Australia).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

All authors performed the literature searches and wrote sections of the manuscript. JYL and ASD drafted and critically reviewed the complete version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anthony S. Don.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

Not applicable.

Informed Consent

Not applicable.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lee, J.Y., Marian, O.C. & Don, A.S. Defective Lysosomal Lipid Catabolism as a Common Pathogenic Mechanism for Dementia. Neuromol Med 23, 1–24 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12017-021-08644-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12017-021-08644-4

Keywords

Navigation