Research progress on the relationship between proBDNF and alcohol dependence and its related cognitive impairment

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF)plays an important role in the growth,develop-ment,differentiation,injury,repair,survival and apoptosis of nerve cells.Precursor of BDNF(proBDNF)is an im-portant regulator of neurodegeneration,long-term hippo-campal inhibition and synaptic plasticity.Alcohol depen-dence syndrome(ADS)is a group of chronic recurrent diseases with unknown etiology.Current studies believe that proBDNF plays an important role in the occurrence,development and outcome of ADS.Alcohol dependence patients,like other neurodegenerative diseases,will also have different degrees of cognitive impairment.This arti-cle reviews the research progress on the relationship be-tween BDNF,proBDNF,alcohol dependence and cogni-tive impairment.