Figure 3.

The concept of dual pathways leading to mixed dementia is shown schematically. On the left is the Alzheimer pathway. This begins early with deposition of amyloid and proceeds through stages of phosphorylated Tau, cell death, and atrophy. On the right the vascular pathway is shown, which also begins early with vascular risk factors that are poorly controlled. When the two pathways converge later in life, they form mixed dementia (MX). At this stage, there already is on-going inflammation from each pathway alone, which now is exaggerated. HIF-1α is hypoxia inducible factor-1α.