Current Alzheimer Research

Recent years have witnessed a period of significant advances in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research. This progress has been occurring on all fronts of biomedical research, including areas as diverse as genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s, imaging studies to identify Alzheimer’s in the living brain and blood tests that may one day be utilized to diagnose the disease [1]. However, in the absence of effective drugs for AD, much research is needed to overcome current barriers towards prevention and drug development for AD [2]. In this context, five years ago this month, Current Alzheimer Research was launched as the premier journal to report novel results and review major advances in different areas of AD [3]. Based on this accomplishment, Current Alzheimer Research is presenting its sixth volume to follow the journal’s main mission of publishing new knowledge gained from recent research in AD. As we mark the 5^th anniversary of the journal, may I highlight the last year’s accomplishments of the journal and outline how it might develop in the coming year as I have done previously for the journal’s 4^th anniversary [4]?

The fifth volume, which has published six issues last year in a timely manner, presented a total of 61 articles and 4 editorials. Both ‘research’ and ‘review’ articles published so far have successfully captured the most recent trends and updates in AD. Importantly, several leading experts from various disciplines of neuroscience reported on a wide range of topics, which include AD biomarkers, cholinesterase inhibitors, neurotrophins, neurosteroids, oxidative stress, structural and conformational studies and various risk factors for AD. To promote original research in novel directions, several unique and controversial topics have also been presented. This endeavor resulted in articles analyzing both basic and applied science questions from cell culture and animal studies to clinical drug studies. To have a global perspective, the 5^th volume of Current Alzheimer Research was contributed by international researchers from at least 16 countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, Turkey, UK and the USA.

During the last year alone, the journal published highly successful three separate ‘Hot topics’ issues. The first one, entitled ‘Production and fate of amyloid peptides: Recent advances and perspectives’ (Guest Editor: Dr. Frédéric Checler), remains a ‘one stop’ knowledge hub to understand alpha-, beta-, gamma- and epsilon secretases and their role in Alzheimer’s disease [5]. The second issue, entitled ‘Structure-function implications in Alzheimer’s disease pathology’ (Guest Editors: Drs. Hermona Soreq and Ehud Gazit), is quite important to understand the convergence of structural studies of biological phenomena using various physical, chemical and computational research methods [6]. The third issue, entitled ‘Conformational Diseases’, (Guest Editor: Dr. Paolo Zatta), nicely complements the previous issue and sheds lights on the importance of metal ions in the pathogenic aspects of various neurological disorders [7]. These special issues have been brilliantly edited and logically presented by the editors and the authors with great insight and thoghtfulness. These important contributions are central to advancement of the field and success for Current Alzheimer Research.

Articles beginning from the first volume and the first issue of Current Alzheimer Research, have been listed in PubMed/MEDLINE. The journal is also indexed in the ‘Alzheimer Research Forum’, Chemical Abstracts, ‘Current Contents’, ‘Genamics JournalSeek’ and ‘PsycINFO’ databases. Current Alzheimer Research also receives coverage in Thomson Scientific products and services, such as ‘Science Citation Index Expanded’ (also known as SciSearch®),‘Neuroscience Citation Index®’, ‘Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition®’, ‘BIOSIS Previews’ and ‘BIOSIS Reviews Reports and Meetings’. Bentham Science, our publisher, continues to provide free online Abstracts of each article and the complete Editorial on the journal’s website (http://www.bentham.org/car/). Notably, all the previous issues of this journal have been published on time, and the articles therein have been well received and greatly welcomed by the researchers in the AD field and by other neuroscientists. In fact, some of the articles published in Current Alzheimer Research have already been cited in high impact journals, such as Nature publications, Neuron, FASEB J and J Neuroscience.

Another achievement of the last year is that Current Alzheimer Research has been assigned an impact factor of 3.5 by the Thomson Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). Humbly put, this is quite a respectable score for a first timer; the journal scores well over the mean of all journals in this category and is classed significantly higher than many long-established general neuroscience and behavioral journals. Indeed, Current Alzheimer Research has made quite an impact in the field from its journey as a completely new journal, an unknown entity, to PubMed/MEDLINE indexing and recently to its entry in the elite group of biomedical journals. There exists no journal that can be seen as a direct competitor for the same niche as Current Alzheimer Research. In fact, it publishes articles in many of the areas covered by other journals in the category of biology, behavioral science, brain imaging, environmental factors, geriatrics, nutrition, neuropathology, psychiatry and toxicology. The features that make Current Alzheimer Research the preferred journal for anyone’s best work can be summarized as follows: Current Alzheimer Research aims to publish the highest quality research with speedy editorial procedures and rapid online publication. Furthermore, the scholarly peer review mechanism is an attractive feature of the journal as our editorial advisory board members and referees provide authors with detailed comments to assist them to improve their manuscripts as much as possible. The publisher ensures high visibility of each article and considers the possibility of free color on the web (printed articles are usually b/w but the web version has color). There also exists the possibility to have an article posted on the Bentham site freely available to all for a fixed fee. Moreover, Bentham is compliant with NIH article deposit requirements. I welcome you all to experience a great satisfaction of your articles being published in the most exciting biomedical journal around!

The themes and topics covered so far in Current Alzheimer Research are just a few snapshots from the increasingly vast field of AD-related research, and definitely more work is needed. Using the search word ‘Alzheimer’s disease’, PubMed picked up over 4,967 publications during the last one-year period alone, and these numbers exclude other potentially important work that appeared in journals not listed in this database. It is thus important not only to publish new discoveries in the field in a timely manner but also to monitor the vast literature and extract its essence in the form of review articles. By using this two-pronged strategy of reporting research studies and review articles, Current Alzheimer Research continues to make a critical contribution and serve an invaluable resource to the AD community, including health care professional, health science administrators, physicians and researchers.

The major emphasis in this year’s, the sixth, volume of Current Alzheimer Research is to report laboratory, behavioral and translational-based research in the field of dementia and neurodegenerative disorders. Other areas of discussion in the journal will include drug target developments, brain imaging, morphometeric studies and pharmacological research. Current Alzheimer Research remains committed to update and highlight results from clinical drug trials, including appropriately-justified, evidence-based negative studies. In the 6^th volume, Current Alzheimer Research, which plans to publish at least six different issues highlighting different areas of AD research as critical review and original research articles, will continue to address the neurobiological aspects of AD, investigate potential new drug targets and analyze novel therapeutic approaches by including research topics from cellular, genetic and in vivo models. In addition, the study of epigenetics, such as how early environmental exposure of organisms to stresses (e.g., metals and homocysteine) could affect gene expression in adult life and trigger late-onset disorders, is another important emerging area for future reporting [8].

In this first issue of the 6^th volume, Current Alzheimer Research presents eight ‘Regular’ articles, two scholarly ‘Commentaries’, one ‘Book Review’ and one ‘Editorial’. They describe some of the most novel, diverse and emerging subjects in the field of AD. For example, reports on understanding DNA damage and repair; cholesterol; anesthesia and calcium homeostasis in AD, are quite important and forward-looking. Separate studies of brain MRI and APOE genotype, cholinesterase inhibitors, MCI, Valsalva maneuver and autopsied brain of demented and psychotic patients represent fascinating work from multiple fronts of neuroscience. Two commentary articles, which comprehensively discuss the problems and opportunities for future AD drug development, provide timely update from different angles of a recent article published in this journal [9]. These articles will potentially increase our knowledge on neurodegeneration and help devising appropriate strategies to develop drug targets for AD therapy.

Another important feature of the 6^th volume is to publish the widely popular ‘Hot Topic’ issues, based on a particular theme of AD research and written by a single expert or a group of widely-regarded experts in the field. Three exciting ‘Hot Topics’ issues lined up for future publication are related to i) ‘Current Advances on MCI’ (Guest Editor: Bernardino Ghetti), ii) Epidemiology & Risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (Guest Editor. David Bennett), and iii) ‘Advances in Alzheimer Therapy: 10th International Hong Kong/Springfield Pan-Asian Symposium’, (Guest Editors: Ana Martínez, Debomoy Lahiri, Ezio Giacobini and Nigel Greig)

In short, the major goal of the future volumes of Current Alzheimer Research is to publish advances on AD from behavioral, molecular, epidemiological, neurochemical and translational research. The journal will also provide summary of important progress in the area of clinical trials and their relevance in AD therapy. Current Alzheimer Research will remain in the forefront to promote novel ideas, unique hypotheses and ‘out of the box’ approaches. All articles will be duly peer-reviewed and discussed objectively to accelerate research in the road to viable strategy for drug target development.

Looking back, it is very gratifying to see that the articles Current Alzheimer Research has published excellently cover the wide breadth of scientific research in AD and come from labs around the world. The topics in the selection reflected the diversity of journal’s content. Indeed, these are exciting steps forward for the journal. I am greatly indebted to the reviewers/referees for their hard work and dedication in the ‘peer-review’ process, which substantially enriched the quality of the journal. On behalf of Bentham Science Publishers and the Editorial Board, I deeply appreciate the invaluable support and patronage received from the authors, readers and the neuroscience community. I also appreciate staff of Bentham Science Publishers for their continued support. I am looking forward to your valued comments and contributions. I strongly believe that you all continue to enjoy reading and contributing articles and join us in looking forward to an equally enjoyable and successful future.