NFTs neurofibrillary tangles

The signature findings are intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), extracellular neuritic plaques, degeneration of neurons and synapses, and cortical atrophy. 

There is considerable evidence that defective homeostasis of redox-active metals, i.e. iron and copper, together with oxidative stress, contributes to the neuropathology of AD. The characteristic histology of AD is the deposition of both Ap, as neurotic plaques (Figure 18.12a), and of the protein tau, as neurofibrillary tangles NFT (Figure 18.12b), predominantly in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. 

Magaki et al. [2007] measured the levels of loosely bound, nonheme, and total iron and copper in the frontal cortex and hippocampus of patients with mild-moderate AD (n = 3), severe AD (n = 8), and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB, n = 6). Additionally, the expression of iron regulatory protein 2 (IRP2) was examined in relation to the pathological hallmarks of AD, that is, 5 amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), and Lewy bodies. A significant decrease of loosely bound iron was found in the hippocampal white matter of both mild-moderate and severe AD patients and a trend toward increased... 

Alzheimer s disease (AD) is neuropathologically characterized by a buildup of extracellular amyloid-(3 peptide (A(3) plaques and of intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) composed of hyperphosphorylated tau, in addition to marked... 

The histopathological characteristics of the brain in Alzheimer s diseases (AD) are the presence of intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), extraneuronal amyloid-rich senile plaques, and a massive loss of neurons of the telencephalon. Although amyloid proteins are unique to senile plaques, several components are common to both senile plaques and NFTs hyperphosphory-lated tau proteins, ubiquitin, a 1-antichymotrypsin, apolipoprotein E, heparan sulfate proteoglycans, and Al and Fe [29]. Recent reports on Al and Fe transport mechanisms and the relation between them in AD are reviewed below. 

Neuropathology of Alzheimer s is also defined by accumulation of another form of insoluble protein, the neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). NFTs are fibrillar structures largely composed of tau, a microtubule-binding protein that stabilises the microtubule tracts necessary for vesicular trafficking, endo- and exocytosis and axonal polarity. No tau mutations have yet been identified... 

The clue to this transition seems to be found in the sense of olfaction. Early in the course of AD, degeneration occurs in the entorhinal cortex-hippocampal-subicular complex (Price and Morris, 1999). The olfactory bulb, particularly the anterior olfactory nucleus, shows numerous neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). Odor identification deficits during life may be associated with NFTs in the hippocampus (Wilson et al., 2007). 

In AD neurons, there are three main types of neurofibrillary lesions (NFLs) according to their intracellular localization neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) inside the cell body and apical dendrites, and neuropil threads (NThs) in distal dendrites and dysrophic neurites, associated with senile plaques. Morphologically, three major subtypes of NFTs can be distinguished, corresponding to different evolutionary stages of these lesions. 

Neurodegeneration is an important but not a unique characteristic feature of AD. What distinguishes AD from other neurodegenerative diseases is the presence of its telltale pathologies in the brains of these patients amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). Amyloid plaques consist of mainly extracellular /f-amyloid (A/i) peptide while neurofibrillary tangles are... 

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