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Concept
Neurodegenerative disease
Summary
A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, multiple system atrophy, and prion diseases. Neurodegeneration can be found in the brain at many different levels of neuronal circuitry, ranging from molecular to systemic. Because there is no known way to reverse the progressive degeneration of neurons, these diseases are considered to be incurable; however research has shown that the two major contributing factors to neurodegeneration are oxidative stress and inflammation. Biomedical research has revealed many similarities between these diseases at the subcellular level, including atypical protein assemblies (like proteinopathy) and induced cell death. These similarities suggest that therapeutic advances against one neurodegenerative disease might ameliorate other diseases as well.
Within neurodegenerative diseases, it is estimated that 55 million people worldwide had dementia in 2019, and that by 2050 this figure will increase to 139 million people.
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that results in the loss of neurons and synapses in the cerebral cortex and certain subcortical structures, resulting in gross atrophy of the temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and parts of the frontal cortex and cingulate gyrus. It is the most common neurodegenerative disease. Even with billions of dollars being used to find a treatment for Alzheimer's disease, no effective treatments have been found. However, clinical trials have developed certain compounds that could potentially change the future of Alzheimer's disease treatments. Within clinical trials stable and effective AD therapeutic strategies have a 99.5% failure rate.
Official source
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