Alzheimer Disease

Alzheimer disease


a complex neurodegenerative dementing illness.
It has become a major public health problem because of its
increasing prevalence, long duration, high cost of care, and lack of
disease-modifying therapy. Over the past few years, however,
remarkable advances have taken place in understanding both the
genetic and molecular biology associated with the intracellular
processing of amyloid and tau and the changes leading to the
pathologic formation of extracellular amyloid plaques and the
intraneuronal aggregation of hyperphosphorylated tau into neurofibrillary
tangles. The identification of disease-causing autosomal
dominant mutations as well as gene polymorphisms that alter the
risk for pathology indicate that Alzheimer disease is a genetically
complex disorder. This progress in our understanding of the molecular
pathology has set the stage for clinically meaningful advances
in diagnosis and treatment. Emerging diagnostic methods
that are based on biochemical and imaging biomarkers of disease specific
pathology hold the potential for accurately diagnosing
Alzheimer disease at the earliest stage of the illness—the time
when disease-modifying treatment will be most effective. Currently
available cholinesterase inhibition therapy targets the cognitive
symptoms. However, the goal of new therapies under development
is halting the pathologic cascade and potentially
reversing the course of the disease.