Neurofibrillary tangles brain

LiwnicZ B. H. Kristensson K. Wisniewski H. M. Shelanski M. L. and Terry R. D. (1974) Observations on axoplasmic transport in rabbits with aluminum induced neurofibrillary tangles. Brain Res. 80 413-420. 

Alzheimer s disease Amount of m-calpain in the cytosolic but not the membranous fractions and in the neurofibrillary tangles of brain from Alzheimer s patients is increased37,38... 

Despite its characteristic symptoms and even after the exclusion of other established causes, AzD can only be reliably diagnosed by neuropathology and microscopic examination of the brain. Indeed that is how it came by its name. In 1907, a German physician, Alois Alzheimer, described two distinct post-mortem changes in the brain of a woman patient who had died with an unusual mental illness. These were the now characteristically accepted markers of the disease, namely senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (Fig. 18.1). 

Namba, Y., Kawatsu, K., Izumi, S., Ueki, A. and Ikeda, K. (1992). Neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques in brain of elderly leprosy patients. Lancet 340, 978. 

Pathologic hallmarks of the disease in the brain include neurofibrillary tangles and neuritic plaques (senile plaques)... 

The pathologic hallmarks of the disease in the brain include neurofibrillary tangles and neuritic plaques made up of various proteins, which result in a shortage of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. These are primarily located in brain regions involved in learning, memory, and emotional behaviors such as the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, basal forebrain, and amygdala.11... 

The most definitive diagnosis of AD is a postmortem examination of the brain for the presence of two characteristic lesions the neuritic plaque (NP) and the neurofibrillary tangle. Both structures were originally described in 1906 by Alois Alzheimer using silver-based histological stains. The discovery of NPs was hailed as a watershed moment in the history of neurological disease as it helped shift society s perception of age-related dementia from social stigma to physical disease [2]. 

Alzheimer s disease is the most common form of age-related dementia and one of the most serious health problems in the industrialized world. AD is an insidious and progressive neurodegenerative disorder that accounts for the vast majority of dementia and is characterized by global cognitive decline and the accumulation of P-amyloid deposits and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. Family history is the second greatest risk factor for... 

As illustrated in the diagram below, domain swapping can also result in indefinite polymerization to form linear supramolecular structures. These may correspond to present-day polymers of proteins such as microtubules, or they may represent abnormal structures, like the straight and paired-helical filaments in the neurofibrillary tangles observed in the brain tissue of those afflicted with Alzheimer s disease. 

Moreover, all cells are not equally targeted in Alzheimer s disease, a disease that has discernable effects on consciousness (Perry et al., 1999). Large pyramidal cells of the frontal and temporal cortex, as well as the large pyramidal cells in CAl of hippocampus and subiculum, are the most susceptible to develop neurofibrillary tangles, to become dysfunctional and ultimately to die (Mann, 1996). It is the accumulation of abnormally hyperphosphorylated tau that disrupts the microtubular system of pyramidal cells in cortex and hippocampus both in experimental animal models and in Alzheimer s disease brain (Gong et al., 2000). 

Shoghi-Jadid K, Small GW, Agdeppa ED, et al (2002) Localization of neurofibrillary tangles and beta-amyloid plaques in the brains of living patients with Alzheimer disease. Am J... 

In order to absolutely confirm the presence of AD, the brain must be biopsied immediately after death. What is found is a general deterioration of brain neurons and the presence of excessive quantities of neurofibrillary tangles (twisted neuron bundles) and amorphous amyloid protein. In 1907 it was the neurofibrillary tangles which Alois Alzheimer first associated with the condition which bears his name. Today clinical psychiatric evaluations, PET brain scans for utilization of glucose as well as NMR are used to help in the diagnosis of AD. It is extremely difficult to differentiate AD from other types of... 

Other areas of the human brain have not been studied in detail. In Alzheimer s disease, neurofibrillary tangles are found to colocalize with histamine in the tuberomammillary areas in the posterior hypothalamus1, and significantly reduced neuron numbers of the tuberomammillary nucleus in Alzheimer s brains33 have been reported. 

Numerous in vitro studies have implicated ROS in neuronal death [Leonardi and Mytilineou, 1998], and different markers of oxidative stress are found in postmortem examination of brain tissues from patients with neurodegenerative disorders [Sayre et al., 2001], DNA oxidation, protein oxidation, and lipid peroxidation have been reported in brain regions containing neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques from Alzheimer s disease (AD) patients [Lovell and Markesbery, 2007 Polidori et al., 2007], Dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra of brains of Parkinson s disease (PD) patients also exhibit hallmarks of oxidative stress [Giasson et al., 2002]. 

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