A special supplement to the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease focuses on this topic and presents key findings.

Guest editors Alexandre de Mendonça of the University of Lisbon and Rodrigo A. Cunha of the University of Coimbra assembled a group of international experts to explore the beneficial effects of caffeine on the brain.

"Epidemiological studies first revealed an inverse association between the chronic consumption of caffeine and the incidence of Parkinson's disease," according to Mendonça and Cunha.

"This was paralleled by animal studies of Parkinson's disease showing that caffeine prevented motor deficits as well as neurodegeneration."

"Later a few epidemiological studies showed that the consumption of moderate amounts of caffeine was inversely associated with the cognitive decline associated with ageing as well as the incidence of Alzheimer's disease."

"Again, this was paralleled by animal studies showing that chronic caffeine administration prevented memory deterioration and neurodegeneration in animal models of ageing and of Alzheimer's disease."

Other key findings in the supplement include:

• Multiple beneficial effects of caffeine to normalise brain function and prevent its degeneration
• Caffeine's neuroprotective profile and its ability to reduce the production of Amyloid Beta, the main constituent of plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's disease
• Caffeine as a candidate disease-modifying agent for Alzheimer's disease
• Positive impact of caffeine on cognition and memory performance
• Identification of adenosine A2A receptors as the main target for neuroprotection afforded by caffeine consumption
• Epidemiological studies corroborated by meta-analysis suggesting that caffeine may be protective against Parkinson's disease
• Several methodological issues must be solved before advancing to decisive clinical trials

"The daily follow-up of patients with AD has taught us that improvement of daily living may be a more significant indicator of amelioration than slight improvements in objective measures of memory performance," said Mendonça and Cunha.

"One of the most prevalent complications of AD is depression of mood, and the recent observations that caffeine might be a mood normaliser are of particular interest."

The entire issue has been made available on a no-fee basis at http://iospress.metapress.com/content/t13614762731/.

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