The History Of Alzheimer's Disease

Before the turn of the 20th century, Alzheimer’s Disease did not exist in the United States or any other part of the world. It is unknown whether cases of this disease were simply omitted from history or if the disease just did not exist before then. While there are no accounts of Alzheimer’s Disease specifically, there are several accounts of dementia with its definition dating back to as far as the middle of the 18th century (Berrios). It was not until the beginning of the 1900s that Alzheimer’s Disease would be discovered by Alois Alzheimer and his staff in Munich, Germany. Alzheimer first encountered this new form of neurological impairment in November of 1901 when Auguste D. was admitted to the hospital where Alzheimer worked at the time.
It was then that the amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles were discovered in her brain. Alzheimer would again encounter this disease in 1911 with Josef F. who died in 1910. However, the difference between Auguste D.’s postmortem autopsy and Josef F.’s is that Josef’s brain showed no signs of neurofibrillary tangles only plaques. It was believed that the absence of neurofibrillary tangles was an alternate strain of Alzheimer’s disease. However, this idea was disproved through the use of modern technology when—in the 1990s—it was discovered that the cases of brains displaying only plaques and both plaques and neurofibrillary tangles were different stages of the disease through its progression (Hippius, Hanns, and Neundörfer). The plaques that are found in the brains of those affected by Alzheimer’s disease are remnants of the beta amyloid plaques that were not broken down and eliminated from the body like they are in the brains of healthy individuals. On the other hand, the neurofibrillary tangles are made up primarily of the protein tau which is responsible for the transport of substances between nerve cells. A patient who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease will have an absence of tau which then causes these tangle structures to collapse.
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Maurer, Konrad and Stephan Volk. "Auguste D and Alzheimer's Disease." Lancet, vol. 349, no.
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