DESCRIPTION

Neurodegenerative diseases constitute a heterogeneous group of multifactorial central nervous system pathologies, can be either sporadic or familial, generally have an insidious onset and chronic course, and in most cases are inexorably progressive. Virtually there is no possibility of causal therapy due to their characteristic to remain silent under the clinical assessment and to become evident only when the damages to nerve structures (nuclei, bundles, neurons and glia) are at an advanced stage. In addition to the pharmacological "symptomatic" treatments, nutritional interventions have become useful and synergistic as well.
Many neurodegenerative diseases are particularly common in the elderly, and forescasts at least alarming. In Italy, for example, the increased life expectancy reaching 87 for women and 85 for men suggests that by 2025 there will be at least 3 million people suffering from a form of dementia, and this will inevitably increase government spending and add to the suffering of patients as well as disomfort to their family members.
The most common neurodegenerative diseases are:

• Alzheimer's disease;
• Parkinson's disease;
• Huntington's disease;
• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (or ALS);
• multiple sclerosis;
• muscular dystrophy.

CAUSES

In the majority of cases neurodegenerative diseases are sporadic, meaning that the genetic causes are excluded; thus, children and relatives of these patients have equal probability of becoming sick. Only few cases are genetic, i.e. the causes of mutations are well-defined and generally autosomal dominant.
The causes of the sporadic forms of neurodegenerative diseases are essentially unknown even for the most studied pathologies up until now. Therefore, we can only speak about the risk, predisposing or aggravating factors. A well-known risk factor is definitely an advanced age, while among the other possible risk factors we also find the gender, low level of education, exposure to pollutants, brain injuries, depression, hormonal and immune systems, several nutritional deficiencies and a series of diseases (hypertension, atherosclerosis, mellitus diabetes, infections, tumors).
Genetic risk factors have also been identified and they are constituted by certain allelic forms of some genes that are not the principal cause but still increase the risk of the disease. Nevertheless, many risk factors remain to be identified.
Much more, instead, is known about the mechanism, or the pathogenesis of those disorders who are caused by genetic defects, psychoneuroendocrinological alternations (PNEC) of the control system, silent inflammation and oxidative stress. In fact, neurons are especially sensitive to oxidative insult because they use oxygen (together with glucose) as a primary source of energy.

TREATMENT

Unfortunately, the possibilities of therapeutic intervention against neurodegenerative diseases are extremely low and mostly involve approaches that are still being tested. Only for the Alzheimer's disease there are currently (2010) at least ten lines of experimentation, ranging from a sort of active vaccination (in an attempt to obtain antibodies that prevent the formation of toxic aggregates) to the usage of selective inhibitors of the β- and γ- secretase. These are two proteases producing Aß peptide from amyloid precursor protein, which produces aggregates and fibrils.
The following steps would be the development of new phramaceuticals or chelating ions that would delay protein aggregation, or the usage of neuroprotectives, anti-inflammatories and antioxidants that would facilitate the survival of synapses and neurons. The hope in intervention lies not only on the therapy, but also on the early diagnosis. The attention has been drawn to a series of biomarkers that can occur before the development of Alzheimer's disease and which, therefore, could provide indicators for the early intervention.
Neurodegenerative diseases may benefit from the prevention and/or because of the support of specific pharmaceutical treatments (often, unfortunately, of limited effectiveness in the medium-long term), from a series of interventions, including cognitive stimulation, improved lifestyle (nutrition and physical exercise) and nutritional supplementation.

INFORMATIVE WEBSITES

Alzheimer Italia – Knowledge portal for the Alzheimer disease: www.alzheimer.it
Non-profit organisation “Primo Ascolto Alzheimer Onlus”: www.alzheimer-onlus.org
Parkinson.it – Italian website on the Parkinson disease: www.parkinson.it
AISLA (acronym in Italian) –Italian Association of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Comment: in English the term is always capitalized on the first letters): www.aisla.it
SLA Italia (acronym in Italian) – Free association against Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: www.slaitalia.it
ARISLA (acronym in Italian) – The agency for research of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: www.arisla.org

DMF SOLUTIONS

The DMF Formind™ line products delay the neurodegenerative process by providing a series of natural substances that physiologically regulate several molecular mechanisms that have been altered in those diseases.