Stress and inflammation: a detrimental combination in the development of neurodegenerative disease

Abstract

Chronic stress accelerates the appearance of some neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson´s disease. On this review we firstly, describe some human epidemiological studies that highlight the possibility that chronic stress could increase the incidence or the rate of incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson´s disease. Secondly, we discuss the important role of inflammation in the progression and development of these neurodegenerative diseases. Finally, we try to justify the relationship between stress and inflammation with some experimental data. This work strongly suggests that chronic stress could be considered a key factor for the development of neurodegenerative diseases through microglial activation.