Research Paper On Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s is an irreversible, unexplained disease. It slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually it destroys the ability to carry out simple tasks. Most people with the Alzheimer’s start experiencing symptoms in their early 60s. The disease was named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer. In 1906 Dr. Alzheimer had a patient that died of an unknown mental illness. Before she died she had memory loss, language problems, and unpredictable behavior. After she died Dr. Alzheimer found many abnormal features in her brain. He found clumps now called amyloid plaques and tangled bundles of fibers now called neurofibrillary. These plaques and tangles in the brain are still some of the main features of Alzheimer’s disease. Those
The key step in the progression of the disease appears to be protein build up in the form of plaques, or clumps of fibers. The plaques contain beta-amyloid peptide, a hard, waxy deposit that results from the break down of the protein amyloid. Another characteristic of the brain is neurofibrillary tangle within neurons. There is also loss of neurons and the synapses connecting them throughout the neocortex. Scientist thinks that the plaques and build up cause the neurons to shrink and eventually die. Synapses are the spaces between nerve cells where information passes from one cell to another. Scientist isn’t sure if the build up of the beta-amyloid is result from the disease or is what is causing the disease. In normal brain tissues there is a protein called tau and it stabilizes microtubules. Microtubules are key parts of cell structure. In a dead brain, these protein strands become tangled. As a result of then tangling the nutrients cannot travel across them. Without critical nutrients the brain cells die. Memory and thinking depend on signals given to over one hundred billion neurons in the brain. Alzheimer’s interferes with cell signal transmission. Also the activity of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters is interfered with. Since the brain chemistry is tangled it produces flawed signaling, so the brain can’t learn, remember, or communicate.
It kills hundreds of people each year. Since 1906 we have been studying this disease seeing what we could find out about it. Since then we haven’t learned where it comes from, why people get it, or how to cure it. Everyday we get closer and closer to the cure and one day we will have it. With the way medicine is advancing anything is possible. They have already found ways to lessen the symptoms. The next step is to find ways to reverse it. The more the researchers know about the brain and how Alzheimer’s effects it the greater the chance in finding a cure. They have made advances in imagining techniques, markers in blood and cerebrospinal fluid, and genetic research. One day in the near future there will be a way to stop or slow down Alzheimer’s