Dementia in the 21st century: towards molecular subtypes and cures
What is it about?
It is time for a new approach to how we prevent and treat cognitive decline and dementia. This requires a deeper understanding of its different forms and causes. The current diagnostic criteria are rather descriptive of symptoms and brain pathologies. This paper is about tackling dementia in a revolutionary manner, i.e., by network medicine, a type of medicine that redefines all diseases by molecular causes, making for the first time precise cure and prevention a possibility, and is now applied to dementia subtypes.
Why is it important?
Cognitive decline and dementia are devastating conditions that are predicted to become more and more prevalent as our population ages. Currently, we lack curative treatments, let alone prevention. Network medicine is helping us reveal these causes, develop better diagnostic criteria, identify molecular subtypes of dementia, and develop effective treatments.