Free Intracellular Calcium in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease

According to the calcium hypothesis of brain aging, abnormal intracellular calcium homeostasis has been proposed to be involved in the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and multifarct dementia (MID). Since free intracellular calcium plays a key role in many cellular functions, imbalances in calcium regulation could finally lead to degeneration of neurons during aging and disease. Thus, pharmacological mechanisms controlling neuronal calcium homeostasis represent a major strategy for the development of new treatments of AD or other age-related disturbances of cognitive functions.