Vascular risk factors and Alzheimer’s disease: A new therapeutic opportunity?

Currently, no possibility exists to reliably quantify the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) onset in the general population and in subjects with mild cognitive impairment. Metabolic and genetic factors involved in increasing the probability of developing dementia have already been identified. Some vascular risk factors, as hypertension, dyslipidaemia, diabetes or smoking can cause a derangement in extra or intracranial vessels architecture, which can be responsible for an early aging of the brain. However, reliable tools for early identification of subjects at greater risk of evolution from mild cognitive impairment to AD are not available.