This article elaborately explains regarding the mechanism of
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) which is one of the most common types of dementia.
According to the review article, one of the major causes of Alzheimer’s disease
are Neurofibrillary tangles, senile plaques and inflammation.
Beta-amyloid peptides are one of the major contributing
factors of senile plaques. There are several isoforms of B-amyloid peptides. In
normal cases, the soluble forms of this peptide is found throughout the brain,
however, the insoluble form of beta-amyloid peptide can cause the initial
deposition. The deposition then leads to the accumulation of the plaques and
this is one of the initial stages of AD. Inflammation is one of the secondary
mechanisms that occur as a result of the accumulation of the senile plaques. There
has been some evidence relating to the findings that a mutation in the
precursor protein affects the rate of beta-amyloid deposition.
One of the interesting topics covered in this article is the
role of microglia and how it acts similar to macrophages. It has the ability to interact with Tumor
Necrosis Factor (TNF-a) and Interferon’s by expressing both MHC I and MHC II
complexes. Microglia play a major role in case of brain injury or infection.
This review article relied on the topic of inflammation and
its role in Alzheimer’s Disease. One of the more fascinating findings was the
ability of anti-inflammatory drugs and its potential ability to relieve and
reduce the symptoms of AD. There was a slight correlation in patients that
received anti-inflammatory and anti-platelet medication with significantly reduced
symptoms. This is a fascinating concept and I believe is an opening door to
finding potentially a cure that prevents the pathological signs of Alzheimer’s
Disease.
From all the diseases we've studies this semester, Alzheimer's Disease scares me the most. I'm pretty sure there are some more frightening ones but I think it's because I have first hand experience with my great-grand mother who is at the end stages of Alzheimer's Disease. I'm SO afraid of ever being diagnosed with it and half the time I already self-diagnose myself for it. This is why I always pay attention to things that have a prospective cure for the disease, and I think it's pretty cool that the research this article talks about has found a small potential for reducing the symptoms of AD. Even though reducing symptoms does not mean a cure, it's still better than nothing. We already know that AD is an inflammatory disease, so treating it with anti-inflammatory drugs only makes sense, but we also know its not that simple. Many factors need to be considered such where else in the body the anti-inflammatory drugs could respond, which could potentially be harmful. Also, we're dealing with the brain here, which is one of the systems we know the least about that needs to be handled very delicately.
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