Disorders of nervous system Flashcards
What is the definition of a neurodegenerative disease?
Disorder in which particular neurons degenerate leading to loss of function of that region of the central or peripheral nervous system
What are some neurodegenerative diseases?
Alzheimer’s
Parkinson’s
Huntington’s
Sclerosis
What are the main neurons lost in Alzheimer’s?
Cholinergic neurons
What is the first part of the brain usually affected by Alzheimers?
Hippocampus and then spreads to frontal lobe (communication) and parietal (orientation)
What are plaques of Alzheimers made of ?
extracellular deposits of degenerating nerve processes and a core of insoluble beta-amyloid proteins
What are neurofibrillary tangles?
In Alzheimers disease, they are found in cell bodies and axons and are composed of hyperphosphorylated protein tau, which is involved in assembly of microtubules
What are the genetic factors involved in Alzheimers ?
Mutations of the genes encoding amyloid precursor protein (APP) and presenilin (involved in processing amyloid )
What are possible environmental factors involved in Alzheimers?
high levels of aluminium in soil
Where is APP usually found?
Membrane of neurons
What enzyme cleaves APP into fragments?
Secretase enzyme (alpha,beta,gamma). Presenilin is catalytic component of gamma-secretase
What fragment of APP is particularly toxic to neurons?
A(beta)42
What are the current drugs used for Alzheimers?
Acetylcholineesterase inhibitors that prevent breakdown of ACh, or ACh receptor agonist that mimic ACh and alleviate symptoms
What are future possibilities for Alzheimers treatment?
Inhibition of secretase enzyme
Antibody-base drugs designed to target toxic Abeta
Vaccine to improve immunity to toxic Abeta
Stem cells to replace lost neurons
What causes Parkinson’s disease?
The degeneration of dopaminergic neutrons of the nigrostriatal pathway
What is one of the features of Parkinson’s?
The accumulation of dense deposits (Lewy bodies) in the nigrostriatal neurons that impair their function or destroy them
What is the nigrostriatal pathway?
Neurons that project from the substantia ingrate to the striatum (basal ganglia)
What could be an environmental factor for Parkinson’s?
Exposure to MPTP which is oxidised by the monoamine oxidase found in dopaminergic neurons, into MPP+ . This then binds to Neuromelanin and inhibits etc killing the cell
What are the genes involved in Parkinson’s?
SNCA gene (park1) which encodes alpha-synuclein and PARK2 gene that encodes the protein parkin
What is the role of alpha-synuclein ?
It is a nerve terminal protein and a toxic form of it is found in Lewy bodies
What is the role of Parkin?
An enzyme component of ubiquitin-proteasome pathway responsible for removal of damaged proteins