Lecture 8

Question 1

What is dementia?

Answer 1

Umbrella term for progressive loss of brain function

Question 2

How do you test for cognitive function?

Answer 2

Phonetic verbal fluency - as many words as you can starting with the same letter
Semantic verbal fluency - as many words as you can in a certain category

Question 3

What causes alzheimers?

Answer 3

Beta amyloid plaques and tau neuro fibrillary tangles

Question 4

How do you treat early stages of alzheimers?

Answer 4

ACHE inhibitors

Question 5

Why are more beta amyloid produced in people with Alzheimer’s?

Answer 5

There are two paths that amyloid precursor protein can be cleaved into. People with Alzheimer’s have overactive beta secretases so produce too much beta amyloid instead of the other non-harmful product

Question 6

Why is it unsure that beta amyloid plaques cause Alzheimer’s?

Answer 6

Drugs targeting it don’t work very well and plaque location doesn’t map well to effects

Question 7

Why are tau neurofibrillary tangles formed in Alzheimer’s?

Answer 7

Tau proteins are hyperphosphorylated so cytoskeleton falls apart

Question 8

What is Braak staging?

Answer 8

How many tangles are present and maps to symptom progression

Question 9

Is Alzheimer’s familial?

Answer 9

Yes for early onset, no for late onset

Question 10

What Mutation is associated with Alzheimer’s?

Answer 10

APOE4 on the APOE gene

Question 11

What does the APOE4 mutation do?

Answer 11

Disrupts tight junctions in BBB