Alzheimer's Patients

What happens in the brain of Alzheimer's patients because of all the unpleasant cognitive and behavioral symptoms of the disease? Alois Alzheimer was the first to find the strange plaques and tangles characteristic of the disease in the brain of one of his patients during an autopsy.

He gave his name to the disease, despite the contribution of his partner Emil Kraepelin made by isolating and identifying the symptoms of the disease. For years, Alzheimer's disease could be diagnosed with a high degree of accuracy post-mortem. Now, researchers learn more about what exactly happens in the brain to cause disease and why those strange plaques and tangles develop first.

neurofibrillary tangles are a feature of Alzheimer's disease. Brain damage occurs as a result of neurons being clogged with microscopic filaments, which are made of an abnormal type of protein tau. Normally, the tau function sends chemical messages from neuron to neuron by binding to microtubules, whereas the type of Tau protein in a bond Alzheimer disease brain itself and goes nowhere.

blocked neurons are no longer able to do their work and to transmit the impulses they receive from the environment and, therefore, disabled neurons are one cause of cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's disease. Brain damage due to neurofibrillary tangles is also found in associated diseases, such as Parkinson's disease. Scientists are not sure why the malfunctions and causes of tau tangles.

Some researchers believe that Tau malfunctions as a result of the protein beta-amyloid, which is what causes the second form of damage in Alzheimer's brain plaques between neurons.

senile plaques, which is considered the most harmful of the two abnormalities in Alzheimer's disease brain, consists of large, abnormal, sticky patches containing beta amyloid protein. These patches block communication between neurons, resulting in learning and memory problems consistent with the cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's disease.

The more plaque there is in the brain, the greater the impairment becomes because plaque is thought to interfere with the functioning of acetylcholine, which transmits nerve impulses in the brain and body. The only drug approved by FDA for the treatment of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are Alzheimer's disease, which block the enzymes that eat away acetylcholine. These drugs work best, however, in the early stages of the disease before the amount of plaque in brains of Alzheimer's disease has caused considerable damage.

Recent research has begun to clarify the possible relation of cause and effect between the plaques and tangles. A study that used proteins in the immune system of the mouse to get rid of beta-amyloid that causes plaque discovered that the protein tangles and gnawing. Other drugs used to lower levels of beta-amyloid also worked on the tangles. Some researchers believe that plaques and tangles may themselves be the result of other disease processes in the brain, such as swollen axons.

In research conducted on mice that were genetically modified to have a disease similar to Alzheimer's disease, swollen axons, which are important in communication between neurons, caused a traffic "jam of any kind may over time, lead to neuronal degeneration, plaques and tangles visible in the brain of AD patients. Researchers hope that by focusing on the disease process in the brain of AD patients, they may one day find a cause and, ultimately, a cure for the disease.