Recent studies suggest that by the middle of this century, as many as 14 million Americans will have
Alzheimer's disease, creating an enormous strain on families, the health care system and the federal budget. There are still widespread misconceptions about issues related to the prevention and/or treatment of disease pathogenesis, leaving us unprepared to deal with the disease. To address these challenges, several therapeutic approaches are currently under investigation, mainly in an attempt to delay disease onset and eventually slow down its progression. Recent epidemiological evidence has implicated the protective role of dietary
polyphenols from grape products against
Alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, experimental evidence supports the hypothesis that certain bioactive grape-derived
polyphenols may protect against
Alzheimer's disease-type cognitive deterioration, in part by interfering with the generation and assembly of β-
amyloid peptides into neurotoxic oligomeric aggregated species. Brain-targeting
polyphenols have been shown to significantly reduce the generation of β-
amyloid peptides in primary cortico-hippocampal neuron cultures, and preliminary results indicate that they may influence neuronal synaptic plasticity. Recent evidence has also implicated the role of certain grape-derived preparations in beneficially modulating tau neuropathology, including reducing tau aggregation. Studies suggest that dietary polyphenolics may benefit
Alzheimer's disease by modulating multiple disease-modifying modalities, both β-
amyloid-dependent and independent mechanisms, and provide impetus for the development of polyphenolic compounds for
Alzheimer's disease prevention and/or
therapy.