Is amyloid-? harmful to the brain? Insights from human imaging studies [electronic resource]

• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 616.8 Diseases of nervous system and mental disorders
• Thông tin xuất bản: Berkeley, Calif. : Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ; Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 2015
• Mô tả vật lý: Size: p. 23-30 : , digital, PDF file.
• Bộ sưu tập: Metadata
• ID: 261009
• Chủ đề: 1. 59 basic biological sciences; 2. 60 applied life sciences; 3. Ageing; 4. Alzheimer?s disease; 5. Amyloid; 6. Biomarkers; 7. Neurodegeneration

Tóm tắt

Although the amyloid-? protein associated with the Alzheimer?s disease plaque has been detectable in living people for over a decade, its importance in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer?s disease is still debated. The frequent presence of amyloid-? in the brains of cognitively healthy older people has been interpreted as evidence against a causative role. If amyloid-? is crucial to the development of Alzheimer?s disease, it should be associated with other Alzheimer?s disease-like neurological changes. Here, this review examines whether amyloid-? is associated with other biomarkers indicative of early Alzheimer?s disease in normal older people. The preponderance of evidence links amyloid-? to functional change, progressive brain atrophy, and cognitive decline. Individuals at greatest risk of decline seem to be those with evidence of both amyloid-? and findings suggestive of neurodegeneration. Lastly, the crucial question is thus how amyloid-? is related to brain degeneration and how these two processes interact to cause cognitive decline and dementia.