Therapeutic Opportunities for Caffeine in Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Disorders.
Although caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug worldwide, its potential beneficial effect for maintenance of proper brain functioning has only
recently begun to be adequately appreciated. This has mainly resulted from the convergence of conclusions from epidemiological studies and from fundamental research in animal models. Epidemiological studies first revealed an inverse association between the chronic consumption of caffeine and the incidence of Parkinson’s disease; this was paralleled by animal studies of Parkinson’s disease showing that caffeine prevented motor deficits as well as neurodegeneration. Later a few epidemiological studies showed that the consumption of moderate amounts of caffeine was inversely associated with the cognitive decline associated with aging as well as the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. Again, this was paralleled by animal studies showing that chronic caffeine administration prevented memory deterioration and neurodegeneration in animal models
of aging and of Alzheimer’s disease.
This evidence was the driving force for a meeting on Caffeine and the Brain
held in Lisbon on the 12–13 June 2009 joining several leading researchers dedicated to the effects of caffeine in the brain. Thanks to the generous sponsoring of Associac ao Industrial e Comercial do Caf´ and to the efforts of its director, Margarie da Ferreira, this gathering of clinical and fundamental
researchers from very different disciplines discussed issues ranging from molecular targets of caffeine, neurophysiological modifications and adaptations, to the potential mechanisms underlying the behavioral and neuroprotective actions of caffeine in distinct brain pathologies.