The key role of mitochondria in Alzheimer's disease.

Mitochondria are uniquely poised to play a pivotal role in neuronal cell survival or death because they are regulators of both energy metabolism and apoptotic pathways. This review is mainly focused in the discussion of evidence suggesting a clear association between amyloid-beta toxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress and neuronal damage/death in Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology. The knowledge that mitochondrial dysfunction has a preponderant role in Alzheimer's disease opened a window for new therapeutic strategies aimed to preserve/ameliorate mitochondrial function. Based on recent developments in mitochondrial research, increased pharmacological and pharmaceutical efforts have lead to the emergence of 'Mitochondrial Medicine' as a whole new field of biomedical research being this topic discussed in the last section of this review.