Alzhiemers Disease Flashcards
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
A disease caused by the atrophy of neurons.
Where is first to atrophy in Alzheimer’s?
Temporal lobe- lose short term memory first.
What is the second bit of the brain to atrophy in Parkinson’s?
The parietal lobe
What can you see in a brain with Alzheimer’s that isn’t in a healthy brain?
Neuritic plaques and neruofibrillary tangles.
What happens when the hippocampus entorhinal cortex atrophies?
Leads to impairment of recent memory function and attention.
What happens when the basal nucleus of meynert atrophies?
Failure of language skills, impaired judgement and personality changes.
What proteins makes up a neurofibrillary tangle?
TAU and Amyeloid proteins
What makes up neuritic plaques?
Only the TAU protein
What causes neurofibrillary tangles and neuritic plaques?
Caused by incorrect folding
What is TAU?
The most abundant intracellular microtubules associates protein.
How does Tau abnormalities affect neurones?
They form fibrillary tangles leading to Neurodegeneration- cause fronto temporal dementia
How are neurofibrillary tangles caused?
Am mutation in FTDP-17, leading to tau hyper-phosphorylation. This leads to aggregation filling the neuron preventing regular function.
What is the TAU proteins usual function?
Microtubule stabilising molecules allowing for neurotransmitter delivery.
What processes are abnormal when TAU is abnormal?
-reduced binding of microtubules
-axonal transport compromised
-disruption of synaptic connectivity
How can abnormal TAU neuronal dysfunction be countered?
-reduce tau phosphorylation
-microtubule stabilising agents
