Does a Hypoxic Injury from a Non-fatal Overdose Lead to an Alzheimer Disease?

Abstract Long term consequence of non-fatal overdose in people who use opioids are not well understood. The intermittent exposure to non-fatal overdose leads to a tauopathy that is often accompanied by abrogated neuroprotective response, abnormal amyloid processing and other pathologies. The scope and limitations of available literature are discussed including neuropathologies cascading from opioid and overdose exposures, contributing comorbidities and proteinopathies. Contrasting postmortem data of overdose victims with animal models of opioid neuropathologies and hypoxic injury paints a picture distinct from other proteinopathies as well as effect of opioid exposure. Furthermore the reported biochemical changes and potential targets for therapeutic intervention were mapped pointing to underlying misbalance of tau kinases and phosphatases that is characteristic of Alzheimer Disease.