Alzheimer's disease and modern lifestyle : what is the role of stress?

This Editorial highlights a study by Baglietto-Vargas et al. 2015 published in this issue of J. Neurochem. Stress is one of the environmental factors that can contribute to Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. However, the role of modern-life stress has not been investigated yet. The authors reveal that modern-life stress reduces the number of dendritic spines in the hippocampus of Alzheimer's disease transgenic mice. The mechanism underlying such effect involves an increase in corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) release that stimulates the amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing and fosters the generation of Amyloid-β, which negatively affects dendritic spines.