Alzheimer's disease Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Alzheimer's disease Deck (23)
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1
Q

What is the most common type of dementia?

A

Alzheimer’s disease

2
Q

What are some of the histopathological features of Alzheimers?

A

Amyloid plaques: Neuritic plaques and diffuse plaques

Neurofibrillary tangles

3
Q

What are neuritic plaques?

A

large bulbous structures that are dystrophic and degenerating.

4
Q

What are diffuse plaques?

A

plaques that contain b-amyloid protein fibres

5
Q

Who was the first to discover neurofibrillary tangles?

A

Alois Alzheimer

6
Q

In the pre-clinical stages of Alzheimers, what causes the amyloid plaques?

A

The release of AB peptides from the amyloid precursor protein which then damages neuronal processes and synapses

7
Q

Mutations at or near to chromosome 21 have been discovered in familial AD

A

Amyloid hypothesis- chromosome 21 contains the APP gene. People with Down’s syndrome invariably develop AD and they have an extra copy of chromosome 21.

8
Q

The Amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer’s states that AD is characterised by….

A

amyloid plaques which contain mainly aggregated AB derived from amyloid precursor protein (APP)

9
Q

What are the 3 major risk factors of AD?

A

Age, family history and sex (higher prevalence in females after 75yrs)

10
Q

What is the main risk factor for Familial AD?

A

genetic mutations

11
Q

What is the only know risk factor of Sporadic AD?

A

Apolipoprotein

12
Q

Familial AD is a rare form of AD, only affecting less than __% of AD patients.

A

10

13
Q

All FAD is early-onset and it caused by mutations on which chromosomes?

A

1, 14 and 21 (APP)

14
Q

Apolipoprotein is the only known risk for Sporadic AD. It increases your susceptibility but there is no causal relationship. What is APOE?

A

A substance that carries cholesterol in the bloodstream

15
Q

E2, E3 and E4 are alleles of the apolipoprotein. Which one is the most common in the general population?

A

E3

16
Q

Name a neurotransmitter that is important for memory?

A

acetylcholine

17
Q

What are the two types of acetylcholine receptors?

A

muscarinic and nicotinic

18
Q

The Cholinergic hypothesis of geriatric memory dysfunction states that significant functional disturbances of the _____ occur in aged and demented people.

A

cholinergic systems

19
Q

Cholinergic hypothesis: there is a correlation between severity of dementia and _____________ activity and cell loss in cholinergic cells.

A

cholineacetyltransferase activity (chAT)

20
Q

What is one piece of evidence supporting the Cholinergic hypothesis?

A

Cholinergic antagonists induce amnesia in people and animals

21
Q

What is the current treatment of AD?

A

Donepezil (Aricept)- acetylcholinesterase inhibitor

22
Q

What test do physicians use to diagnose AD?

A

Mini-mental state examination

23
Q

Moran et al (1995) found that transgenic mice expressing human form of APP with a mutation had _____-________ disrupted ________ _______ in water maze

A

age-dependent, spatial memory.