The relationship between kidney health and neurodegenerative diseases

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases are multi-faceted disorders influenced by and affecting more than just the brain and nervous system. Here, we provide a review of the potential links, including mechanistic and genetic, between kidney health and neurodegeneration, mainly dementia and the two most prevalent late-onset neurodegenerative disorders, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. We also discuss lines of evidence from various study designs and methodologies that either support or do not support an association between kidney health and neurodegeneration. We conclude with a summary of current gaps and provide possible ways forward to overcome them in future research. The goal of this review is to encourage further exploration of the relationship between these two biological systems to better elucidate potential actionable options to improve brain health.

chronic kidney disease, neurodegenerative diseases, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease

Accepted manuscripts

Accepted manuscripts are PDF versions of the author’s final manuscript, as accepted for publication by the journal but prior to copyediting or typesetting. They can be cited using the author(s), article title, journal title, year of online publication, and DOI. They will be replaced by the final typeset articles, which may therefore contain changes. The DOI will remain the same throughout.

Author notes

Melody Zuo and Le Chang contributed equally to this work.