Abstract
Inflammation plays an important role in progressive degenerative diseases of the CNS, such as Alzheimer's disease, which represents the major cause of cognitive impairment in old age. Alzheimer's disease is a complex disease with multifactorial etiology and may represent a good model to investigate the multifaceted functions of immune responses in relation to cognitive decline. This review will discuss the following topics: relationships between inflammation and brain degenerative processes in Alzheimer's disease, the influence of genetic variations in cytokine genes upon the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and/or the age at onset of the disease, the effects of gene allele polymorphism of immune molecules upon the turnover of these factors in the blood and brain of Alzheimer's disease patients and the association of genetic variations in some of this molecules with cognitive decline.