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Alzheimer’s Disease a Fight for Information and Understanding

In: Science

Submitted By jdevries53
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Alzheimer’s Disease a Fight for Information and Understanding

ABSTRACT

Alzheimer’s disease slowly deteriorates the brain, causing loss of both memory and the ability to control emotion. This review will discuss possible indicators, hypothesized causes, and both current and experimental treatments of Alzheimer’s. The disease mostly affects people over the age of 60 but can occur earlier. The problem with detecting Alzheimer’s early is that there are no clear indicators, and the changes in the brain progress before symptoms in the patient are visible. It’s hypothesized that the main cause of Alzheimer’s is neuronal plasticity and a build up of plaques. The plasticity leads to neuron tangles, causing blocks in synaptic signaling. Research on assays for detecting amyloid-beta ligands and disease treatments will need to involve human trails for future investigation.

KEY WORDS: Alzheimer’s disease, neuronal plasticity, Tau-directed Therapy, amyloid-beta ligands, dementia

INTRODUCTION

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a deteriorating disease of the brain that attacks neurons throughout the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus.1,2 The deterioration the cerebral cortex leads to the impairment of a person’s ability to control emotion, coordination, and the ability to comprehend configurations.6 The loss of memory caused by AD comes from the deterioration of the hippocampus.5 Alzheimer’s is most common in people 65 years or older, however for people with early onset Alzheimer’s disease, signs can begin to appear as early as 30.3 Today Alzheimer’s is estimated to affect 10% of the worlds population over the age of 60.3 All people have the gene APOE that has the commands to make the proteins that maintain cholesterol levels. There are three different alleles of this gene, e2, e3, and e4.10,11 The e4 allele increases the chance for developing AD.10,11 Plaque build up

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