Diabetes mellitus is a common metabolic disorder associated with chronic complications including a state of mild to moderate cognitive impairment, in particular psychomotor slowing and reduced mental flexibility, not attributable to other causes, and shares many symptoms that are best described as accelerated brain ageing. A common theory for aging and for the pathogenesis of this cerebral dysfunctioning in diabetes relates cell death to oxidative stress in strong association to inflammation, and in fact nuclear factorκB (NFκB), a master regulator of inflammation and also a sensor of oxidative stress, has a strategic position at the crossroad between oxidative stress and inflammation. Moreover, metabolic inflammation is, in turn, related to the induction of various intracellular stresses such as mitochondrial oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and autophagy defect. In parallel, blockade of autophagy can relate to proinflammatory signaling via oxidative stress pathway and NFκB-mediated inflammation.

A major pathogenic mechanism of chronic alcoholism involves oxidative burden to liver and other cell types. We show that adult neurogenesis within the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus is selectively impaired in a rat model of alcoholism, and that it can be completely prevented by the antioxidant ebselen. Rats fed for 6 weeks with a liquid diet containing moderate doses of ethanol had a 66.3% decrease in the number of new neurons and a 227–279% increase in cell death in the dentate gyrus as compared with paired controls. Neurogenesis within the olfactory bulb was not affected by alcohol. Our studies indicate that alcohol abuse, even for a short duration, results in the death of newly formed neurons within the adult brain and that the underlying mechanism is related to oxidative or nitrosative stress. Moreover, these findings suggest that the impaired neurogenesis may be a mechanism mediating cognitive deficits observed in alcoholism.