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Cure and Causes of Alzheimer's Disease: A Must Read!
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What is Alzheimer's Disease? And why is it called so?
Alzheimer's causes memory loss and is more prevalent among older people. Cure and causes of Alzheimer's disease are discussed in this article.

Before we dwell into the details about the disease, let us go back into the history first, and find out about the nomenclature (story of it's name). In 1901, a German Psychiatrist, Alois Alzheimer, confronted a patient with severe memory loss (or dementia). 

The patient was a fifty-year-old woman, Auguste Deter. Dr. Alzheimer thoroughly studied her case till her death in 1906, and then reported (published) his observations.

Born in 1850, Auguste Deter had a very normal life. But after 1890, she started suffering from dementia, characterized by loss of memory, delusions, and even temporary vegetative states. The effects of this unknown disease started reflecting in term of sleeplessness, screaming in the middle of the night, dragging sheets across house etc. With no hope of cessation of her disease, her husband decided to admit her in mental institution in 1901. And, that's when Dr. Alois Alzheimer confronted this unique case.


Auguste Deter died in April 1906 (cause of her death was infection due to a bedsore). Dr. Alzheimer named the disease as Alzheimer's Disease (a case that was too close to him). And, to let you people understand, what a typical Alzheimer's disease can be like, let me brief you about the description of the symptoms of the first ever 'reported' patient of Alzheimer's Disease:
[Image: 159px-Auguste_D_aus_Marktbreit.jpg]
Auguste Deter: The First Reported Patient of Alzheimer's Disease
Source: Wikimedia


Symptoms and Severity of Alzheimer's Disease:

Dr. Alzheimer observed that Auguste had no sense of time or place. There was nearly total loss of memory about the details of her own life. The answers given by her to the questions asked were senseless and incoherent. There were frequent mood swings between anxiety, mistrust, withdrawal and 'whininess'! A part of pity as well as curiousness was that "she was aware of her helplessness, and would utter "Oh, God!", and, "I have lost myself, so to say".

Causes of Alzheimer's Disease

What leads to memory loss, fits, mood swings, screaming (or total dementia) in Alzheimer's disease has been very well researched. But what exactly leads to that particular state has been eluding the scientific community till date. Speculations though have always been pointed towards: Environmental factors, genetic pre-disposition (less than 5% cases owed to genetic causes), lifestyle etc.
Anatomical causes of Alzheimer's disease (that have been very well researched and established) include the following:
  • Damage and death of brain cells
  • Very few brain cells (neurons) and very few inter-neuronal connections among surviving cells
  • Significant brain shrinkage

Autopsy of brain tissue of Alzheimer affected patients has revealed two types of abnormalities under microscope, which have become the index (hallmark) of the disease:


Plaques: There is protein on the surface of almost all cells through-out the body called APP (Amyloid-beta precursor protein).  The intact form of APP is a receptor protein that sends signals through the G-protein system and binds to many structural molecules outside cells, such as heparin and laminin, playing a role in cellular communication as well as cell adhesion. In neurons the intact APP plays an essential role in neural growth and repair.

There's a little peptide portion of APP which when broken off the intact protein, causes severe damage to the brain cells. The free peptide of APP can aggregate into long fibrils through shape changes. These aggregates of tough fibrils end up forming dense plaques on nerve cells.

These plaques gradually lead to brain damage and interference with cell-to-cell communication. Scientists are yet to figure out the precise event leading to the death of nerve cells (note: nerve cells lack the ability to divide, thus any death/loss of nerve cells is a "permanent damage"), but the plaque development is indeed the prime suspect that leads to death of brain cells.


Tangles: 
A protien named "Tau" is very crucial for the smooth operation of "nutrient and other essential materials transport" throughout the long-extensions of brain cells.
It has been observed in the autopsy of Alzheimser's patients' brains that Tau protein tends to form abnormal tangles in the brain cells through twisting of its threads. The abnormal transformation of Tau into Tangles leads to the failure of the nutrient/essential material transport system. This makes the presence of Tangles as another strong contender for the ultimate brain cell death.

Following videos should give you an idea about Alzheimer progression due to plaques and tangles:

One of the best videos!

Another precise and to the point video:


Diagnosis and Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer’s disease can be diagnosed using couple of techniques:
A. Brain imaging (computed tomography or magnetic imaging)
B. Neuropsychological tests
C. Blood analysis (couple of known markers exist)


Although there is no drug available to reverse the brain-damage due to Alzheimer's diasease, there are indeed some medications avilable to improve/control congnitive/behavioral problems. The focus of current treatments is thus focused on the main attributes of Alzheimer’s disease: dementia (memory loss), depression and cognitive impairments. Most drugs aim at slowing down the progression of neurodegeneration but they can’t prevent/reverse the disease.

Typical Mechanism of Action of Drugs used for treatment of Alzheimer's patients:
  • Typical mechanism of action is focused on proteolysis of amyloid precursor protein; latest drugs could prevent proteolysis or bind to already formed beta amyloid prior its aggregation and eliminate it.
  • Other drugs affect distribution of beta amiloid through the brain or decrease the rate of neuroinflammation.  Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders associated with old age and one of the most expensive to be treated because patients demand special care due to physically, physiologically and socially altered behavior.

Some Drugs for Alzheimer's Patients (US FDA Approved)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two types of drugs/medications aimed at treating the cognitive symptoms (memory loss, confusions, behavioral swings, reasoning and thinking disability) of Alzheimer's disease:
a) Cholinesterase inhibitors (Poular brands: Aricept, Exelon, Razadyne)
b) Memantine (Popular brand: Namenda)

Three cholinesterase inhibitors are commonly prescribed:
  • Donepezil (Aricept) is approved to treat all stages of Alzheimer's.
  • Rivastigmine (Exelon) is approved to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer's.
  • Galantamine (Razadyne) is approved to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer's.


Keep Watching This Space for Some of the Most Interesting Facts about
The CURE and CAUSES of Alzheimer's Disease

REFERENCES (for the content till now):
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Messages In This Thread
Cure and Causes of Alzheimer's Disease: A Must Read! - by SunilNagpal - 11-26-2012, 11:07 PM
Familial Alzheimer’s Disease - by brijnbhatt - 12-29-2013, 05:59 AM
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Cure and Causes of Alzheimer's Disease: A Must Read!00