β-amyloidopathy in the Pathogenesis of Age-Related Macular Degeneration in Correlation with Neurodegenerative Diseases

Abstract

Involvement of new biotechnology and genetic engineering methods to the study of the aging organism allowed to select a group of neurodegenerative diseases (NDD) which have a similar mechanism of pathogenesis including pathological processes of protein aggregation and its deposition in the structures of nerve tissue. The development of eye and brain from one embryonic germ layer, community of ethiopathogenetic and morphological manifestations of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), a common pathway of β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) are associated with the pathological aggregation of fibrillar β-amyloid (Aβ) protein and the development of β-amyloidopathy in structural elements of the eye and the brain. The review demonstrates the keynote of AMD and AD pathogenesis is β-amyloidopathy that is a manifestation of proteinopathy leading to cytotoxicity, neurodegeneration and the development of pathological apoptosis activated by the formation of intracellular Aβ. This view on the problem predetermines the development of new strategies for the creating of ophthalmogeriatric and neuroprotective drugs affecting the pathogenesis and including all stages of Aβ formation and pathological aggregation.

Keywords: Age-related macular degeneration; Alzheimer’s disease; Amyloidogenesis; Neurodegenerative diseases; Proteinopathy; Senile local amyloidosis; β-amyloidopathy.