The disproportionate evolutionary expansion of the human cerebral cortex with reinforcement of cholinergic innervations warranted a major rise in the functional and metabolic load of the conserved basal forebrain (BF) cholinergic system. Given that acetylcholine (ACh) regulates properties of the microtubule-associated protein (MAP) tau and promotes non-amyloidogenic processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP), growing neocortex predicts higher demands for ACh, while the emerging role of BF cholinergic projections in Aβ clearance infers greater exposure of source neurons and their innervation fields to amyloid pathology. The higher exposure of evolutionary most recent cortical areas to the amyloid pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with synaptic impairments and atrophy, therefore, might involve attenuated homeostatic effects of BF cholinergic projections, in addition to fall-outs of inherent processes of expanding association areas. This unifying model, thus, views amyloid pathology and loss of cholinergic cells as a quid pro quo of the allometric evolution of the human brain, which in combination with increase in life expectancy overwhelm the fine homeostatic balance and trigger the disease process.

• Klíčová slova
• Alzheimer’s disease, Amyloid deposition, Brain evolution, Cholinergic neurons, Cortical expansion, Default mode networks, p75 NTR,
• MeSH
• Alzheimerova nemoc metabolismus   patologie   MeSH
• default mode network metabolismus   patologie   MeSH
• fylogeneze * MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mozková kůra metabolismus   patologie   MeSH
• neurony cholinergní metabolismus   patologie   MeSH
• proteiny nervové tkáně metabolismus   MeSH
• receptory faktorů růstu nervů metabolismus   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• přehledy MeSH
• Názvy látek
• NGFR protein, human MeSH Prohlížeč
• proteiny nervové tkáně MeSH
• receptory faktorů růstu nervů MeSH