This book gives an overview of the current knowledge on the most common neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and additional neurodegenerative diseases. Different aspects of each disease are reviewed, including clinical issues, treatments, basic discoveries (genetics and molecular biology), and translation of basic research into biomarkers for early diagnosis. In addition, emerging data indicate that neurodegeneration seems to also be present in classically non-degenerative disorders. Therefore, a chapter about overlapping mechanisms between dementias and psychiatric disorders is included, as well as a description of the role of neurodegeneration in multiple sclerosis. Neurodegenerative Diseases is aimed at clinicians, particularly those working in academic hospitals. This multidisciplinary book will also be of interest to basic researchers in medical fields.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the deposition into the brain of amyloid peptide, which originates a cascade of inflammatory events leading eventually to neuronal death. These pathological events likely occur several years before the clinical manifestation of the disease, implying that potential therapeutical interventions are currently started too late to give beneficial results. Recently, growing attention has been paid to the Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), considered the prodromal phase of AD, as 80% of subjects with MCI have been shown to develop AD within 5 years. Several studies aimed to identify biological markers to differentiate between normal aging and incipient AD have been carried out, including cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis and neuroimaging. In particular, the evaluation of CSF Amyloid beta (1-42) levels, together with tau and phospotau, are of help for recognizing early AD. Besides, a number of additional molecules are altered in CSF. Other early modifications have been observed in peripheral cells, such as fibroblasts and leukocytes, as well as in serum from patients. Biomarkers for AD represent important tools supporting the clinical diagnosis and the choice of potential therapeutic options. Moreover, they would be of great help for the selection of cohorts of homogeneous patients for clinical trials with new disease-modifying compounds. This book is aimed to give an update about MCI as prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AD), to discuss the main known pathological mechanisms at the basis of AD and to describe the possible biomarkers to be used for an early diagnosis of the disease.