A Brief History Of Alzheimer s Disease - 1675 Words

1. Introduction 1.1 A brief overview of Alzheimer’s diseases The life expectancy is now doubled from the last century in the developed countries due to the revolution progress in medicine and health mainly to chronic diseases. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most well-known and familiar diseases in the modern societies AD was first reported by Alois Alzheimer in 1907.The AD is the most common type of dementia and a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the damage of nerve cells in the cerebral cortex. The health statistics report that AD disease affects more than 50 million people worldwide in 2003, it is expected this number to increase to 114 million by 2050.(1) It is reported that AD disease affect one in three people over the age 85.(2) The symptoms of AD include depression, apathy, anxiety, agitation, aggression, delusions, hallucinations, wandering, and inappropriate sexual behaviours.(3) AD patients suffer from decrease in cognitive function and short term memory. AD is characterised by the formation of insoluble c lumps of protein or plaques, formed by proteins known as ÃŽ ²-amyloids. These attach to the cell surface of neurons and disabled nerve transmission. These plaques have been demonstrated to contain relatively high levels of Zn2+, Cu2+ and Fe3+ (1 mM, 0.4 mM and 1 mM respectively).(4) While the precise role of these metals is still uncertain, they appear to bind to so-called ÃŽ ²-amyloid peptides that constitute the bulk of plaque deposits. 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