Alzheimer's Disease

Question 1

What are the abnormal proteins that aggregate for each of the 4 dementias?

Answer 1

AD = Amyloid B-42
Fronto Temporal Dementia = Tau
Dementia with lewy bodies = alpha-synuclein
CJD = prion

Question 2

What are the sporadic risk factors that are linked to dementias?

Answer 2

Head trauma, stroke, HTN, Diabetes, high cholesterol, low exercise, AGE

Question 3

What are the characteristic gross and histological signs of AD?

Answer 3

Neuritic plaques
Neurofibrillary tangles
Synaptic and neuronal loss due to apoptosis
Brain atrophy

Question 4

What are early signs of AD?

Answer 4

gradual failure of episodic memory

anosmia

Question 5

What are neuritic plaques?

Answer 5

Extracellular deposits of insoluble fibrils of polymers of amyloid-beta proteins.

Question 6

What is the amyloid hypothesis?

Answer 6

Extracellular accumulation of neuritic plaques leads to disruption of synaptic transmission.