Lithium: the protective cation singled out by Alzheimer’s disease
- 1Department of Life Science, College of Natural Sciences, Research Institute for Natural Sciences, Research Institute for Convergence of Basic Science, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Korea
Abstract
Lithium is a mood stabilizer that is most prescribed in psychiatry for managing mental disorders. Many findings indicate that lithium is also neuroprotective in various neurodegenerative diseases. In particular, lithium has been of great interest as an affordable but still effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), due to its diverse neuroprotective actions and mechanistic overlap with key AD pathways, such as Aβ production and tau modification. While the multifaceted activities may result from lithium’s inhibitory action on two key enzymes, glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (GSK-3β) and inositol monophosphatase (IMPase), recent findings suggest that selective lithium depletion in neurons mediated by amyloid deposits may be a key pathological trigger in AD and supplementation with lithium orotate, a lithium salt with reduced amyloid binding, may even reverse brain damage and prevent cognitive decline. In this study, we review the neuroprotective properties of lithium, its known mechanisms of action, and discuss its therapeutic potential in AD, a topic that has been debated for decades.
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BibTeX
@article{kim2026lithium,
title = {{Lithium: the protective cation singled out by Alzheimer’s disease}},
author = {Seung Hyun Kim and Sun-Kyung Lee},
journal = {BMB Reports},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.5483/bmbrep.2026-0134},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5483/bmbrep.2026-0134},
note = {CC BY-NC 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Lithium: the protective cation singled out by Alzheimer’s disease
AU - Seung Hyun Kim
AU - Sun-Kyung Lee
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/31
JO - BMB Reports
DO - 10.5483/bmbrep.2026-0134
UR - https://doi.org/10.5483/bmbrep.2026-0134
AB - Lithium is a mood stabilizer that is most prescribed in psychiatry for managing mental disorders. Many findings indicate that lithium is also neuroprotective in various neurodegenerative diseases. In particular, lithium has been of great interest as an affordable but still effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), due to its diverse neuroprotective actions and mechanistic overlap with key AD pathways, such as Aβ production and tau modification. While the multifaceted activities may result from lithium’s inhibitory action on two key enzymes, glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (GSK-3β) and inositol monophosphatase (IMPase), recent findings suggest that selective lithium depletion in neurons mediated by amyloid deposits may be a key pathological trigger in AD and supplementation with lithium orotate, a lithium salt with reduced amyloid binding, may even reverse brain damage and prevent cognitive decline. In this study, we review the neuroprotective properties of lithium, its known mechanisms of action, and discuss its therapeutic potential in AD, a topic that has been debated for decades.
SN - 1976-6696
SN - 1976-670X
ER -