BIOL 553 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Amyloid Precursor Protein, Amyloid, Amyloid Beta
Document Summary
Provide an overview of the pathogenesis and impact of alzheimer"s disease. Assess the genetic, environmental, and infectious risk factors for alzheimer"s disease in the context of primary and exacerbating causes. Definition: a disease characterized by the progressive decline in cognitive ability (generally over. 10 to 15 years), associated with the deposits of amyloid plaque and tangles of tau protein in the brain. Brain tissue is reduced and brain ventricles are enlarged. Functional attributes that may be affected include memory, judgment, language, decision-making ability, attention, behavior, and personality. -amyloid protein released from secretory vesicles of neurons fold into a form that is believed to be toxic; the folded form aggregates to form plaques. -when microtubules of diseased neurons disintegrate, tau proteins clump together to form tangles. Paradox: alzheimer"s disease is not associated with pathogenic lipid deposition. Suggests that chlamydia pneumoniae may be playing a primary causal role in sporadic. --about 95% of the alzheimer"s brains were positive for c. pneumoniae.
