Xuele Tao

Abstract Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common dementia, and post-mortem and imaging studies consistently demonstrate that vascular pathology coexists with plaques and tangles in most AD brains. Vascular risk factors—hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, and atrial fibrillation—damage the neurovascular unit, disrupt the blood-brain barrier, and induce chronic hypoperfusion, thereby promoting β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition, tau hyperphosphorylation, and neuroinflammation.