Diagnosis and Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease: The Original Article

Abstract

The real cause of this disease is still unknown, no one knows exactly why some people get it and some survive. Almost 10% of people over the age of 60 have dementia, and about half of them have Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is a genetically heterogeneous disease that can be seen in all races. 5% of patients have familial disease with early onset, 15-20% have familial disease with late onset, 75% have isolated disease. 10% of familial Alzheimer's cases show autosomal dominant inheritance and the rest show multifactorial inheritance. The most important cognitive findings of Alzheimer's disease are the deposition of two filament proteins of beta-amyloid tau peptide in the brain. Beta-amyloid peptide, which is formed from the protein encoded by one of the genes predisposing to familial Alzheimer's disease, is found in amyloid plaques or aging in the extracellular space of the brain of Alzheimer's patients. Amyloid plaques contain other proteins besides beta amyloid. including Apo lipoprotein E, which is encoded by a type of gene that predisposes to Alzheimer's disease (APOE). Hyper phosphorylated forms of tau protein (TAU) form neurofibrillary tangles, unlike amyloid plaques, found inside Alzheimer's neurons. Tau is a microtubule-related protein that is abundantly expressed in brain neurons. This protein strengthens the accumulation and stability of microtubules, which is reduced due to phosphorylation. The formation of tangles and tau neurofibrillation is apparently one of the causes of neuronal transformation in Alzheimer's disease.