Are we getting to grips with Alzheimer's disease at last?

Abstract

Recent statistics from the Alzheimer Research Trust suggest that in the UK alone 820 000 people are affected by dementia with a cost to the economy of £23 billion/year. Similar figures apply to all developed countries and most others are catching up rapidly. With increasing life expectancy, age-related dementia is seen globally as an urgent public health priority.

Histological examination of the brain is still regarded as the gold standard for diagnosis of the specific disease process underlying dementia, the commonest cause of which is Alzheimer’s disease. The main features of Alzheimer’s disease are extracellular accumulation of amyloid ?-protein (A?) in the form of plaques and in blood vessel walls as cerebral amyloid angiopathy; intraneuronal accumulation of tau protein forming tangles in neuronal cell bodies as well as in neuronal processes situated close to plaques (dystrophic neurites) and elsewhere (neuropil threads); activation of microglia and astrocytes; and neuronal and synaptic

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Identifiers

ORCID for Delphine Boche: orcid.org/0000-0002-5884-130X

ORCID for James A R Nicoll: orcid.org/0000-0002-9444-7246

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