Association Between Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Its Treatment, and Alzheimer's Disease: Systematic Mini-Review

• Published in: Frontiers in aging neuroscience Vol. 12; p. 591737
• Main Authors: Kuo, Chih-Yun, Hsiao, Hung-Ta, Lo, Ing-Hsien, Nikolai, Tomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 06.01.2021; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: Aging; Alzheimer's disease; Apnea; Body mass index; Cerebrospinal fluid; cerebrospinal fluid-CSF; Cognitive ability; continuous positive air pressure; Dementia; Hypertension; Hypotheses; Hypoxia; Metabolism; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neuropathology; Neuroscience; obstructive sleep apnea (OSA); OSA treatment; Population; Risk factors; Sleep; Sleep apnea; Sleep disorders; sleep disturbance and sleep disordered breathing; Tau protein; β-Amyloid; cerebrospinal fluid-CSF; continuous positive air pressure; OSA treatment; Alzheimer's disease; obstructive sleep apnea (OSA); sleep disturbance and sleep disordered breathing
• ISSN: 1663-4365; 1663-4365
• DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2020.591737

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are common in the elderly population. Obstructive sleep apnea that may cause significant changes in the cerebrospinal fluid β-amyloid and T-tau and/or P-tau protein levels is often identified as a risk factor for development of AD. Although the underlying mechanisms of AD are still not fully understood, a hypothesis associating OSA with AD has been already proposed. In this systematic mini-review, we first discuss the recent findings supporting the association of OSA with an increased risk of AD and then provide evidence suggesting the positive effect of OSA treatment on a reduced risk of AD.