Abstract:

Along with the progressive aging of the population, the prevalence of obesity, metabolic diseases and neurodegenerative disorders continues to grow. Moreover, increasing evidence suggests that metabolic alterations strongly influence the initiation and progression of neurodegenerative disorders. Accordingly, brain aging is accompanied by metabolic, morphological and neurophysiological changes leading to the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Huntington’s disease (HD) and multiple sclerosis (Procaccini et al., 2016). Since each of these disorders involve impaired energy metabolism and/or adverse changes in the cerebral vasculature, a reduction in energy availability to neurons may contribute to increased vulnerability of the brain to develop neurodegenerative processes (Camandola and Mattson, 2017).