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Review
. 2025 Jul;106(1):51-53.
doi: 10.1177/13872877251338467. Epub 2025 May 6.

Obesity and Alzheimer's disease dementia: Examining inflammatory links to cognitive decline and neuropsychiatric symptoms

Carolin Am Koriath  1 , Robert Perneczky  1
Affiliations
Review

Obesity and Alzheimer's disease dementia: Examining inflammatory links to cognitive decline and neuropsychiatric symptoms

Carolin Am Koriath et al. J Alzheimers Dis. 2025 Jul.

Abstract

Obesity is recognized as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer's disease dementia (AD dementia). Emerging evidence indicates that obesity in AD patients is associated with heightened neuropsychiatric symptoms, as reflected by inflammatory biomarkers such as C-reactive protein and complement C3. Neuroinflammation, particularly through certain aspects of microglial activation, plays a significant role in AD development and cognitive decline. While further research is warranted to explore these neuroinflammatory pathways as potential therapeutic targets, proactive weight management starting in middle age may help mitigate both cognitive decline and neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; dementia; neurobehavioral; neuroinflammation; neuropsychiatric symptoms; obesity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: C.K. reports no conflicts of interest. R.P. has received honoraria for advisory boards and speaker engagements from Roche, EISAI, Eli Lilly, Biogen, Janssen-Cilag, Astra Zeneca, Schwabe, Grifols, Novo Nordisk, Tabuk, AbbVie, GSK and Bristol-Myers Squibb. R.P. is an Editorial Board Member of this journal but was not involved in the peer-review process of this article nor had access to any information regarding its peer-review.

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