NGF and Alzheimer's disease: unfulfilled promise and untapped potential.

A role for impaired NGF mechanisms as an underlying component in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease has yet to be realized. However, circumspect examination of the available data fails to provide sufficient evidence for rejecting this notion and further systematic evaluation along each step of NGF's mechanism of neurotrophic action is still required. This commentary argues that NGF may be involved in the degeneration observed in the basal forebrain in AD, or at the very least, plays a dynamic role in the disease process.