Some recent developments in the search for a cure.
Plagues consisting of a sticky substance are formed and invade neuron cells. When this happens at their synapses gradually the memory that is transferred from one part of the brain to another is lost. The substance is derived from beta amyloid produced through a defective cut in the protein produced from defective genes. Scientists have studied the genome of chromosome 21, the easiest chromosome to study for genetic material because it is the smallest in order to identify this protein anomaly. Naturally its discovery does not mean a quick solution to the disease but it gives us a better understanding of what happens at a cellular level. No one knows how the substance invades the healthy neuron but they have developed a substance, which can enter into a brain, mark the affected neurons and then leave the system through the blood brain barrier. Perhaps this substance known as the Pittsburgh body can link to a pharmaceutical, which would be transported to the affected neurons, and either restore neuron activity or prevent the defective protein from blocking neuronal activity.
The disease is called Alzheimer's, named after the German doctor who successfully identified a strange substance that accumulated in the brain tissue of a women who gradually went from dementia into total memory loss and later died. He used silver to stain the tissue he extracted from her brain.
The first area of the brain that gets affected is called the hippocampus. Once the beta amyloid builds up there, there is a gradual memory loss. Memory loss is not in itself symptomatic of the disease but a deteriorating memory loss involving the loss of knowing what was recently done, the loss of familiar names and places and the inability to do routine tasks is. The chances of it occurring is greater in families where it has occurred as it is passed on genetically and there is a greater risk of getting it as one gets older.
