neurotransmission & neurodegenerative disease Flashcards
what defines a neurodegenerative disease?
a type of disease in which neurons of the cns stop working or die.
why is the brain susceptible to neurodegeneration?
poor repair processes, reduced energy availability, inflammation and excitotoxicity, oxidative stress etc
factors contributing to neurodegenerative disease?
aging, genetics, environmental factors like injury, infection, inflammation
symptoms of alzheimer’s?
amnesia, aphasia, apraxia, agnosia, mood and behavioural disturbance
pathology of alzheimer’s?
neuronal loss in cortex and hippocampus, neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques
symptoms of parkinson’s?
resting tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, postural instability
pathology of parkinson’s?
loss of dopamine containing neurons in substantia nigra, post mortem presence of lewy bodies containing a-synuclein protein
symptoms of huntington’s?
personality disturbance, twist and turn in motion, death occurs on average 17 years post onset
pathology of huntington’s?
massive degeneration in striatum due to the loss of GABAergic efferent neurons
genetics of huntington’s?
autosomal dominant, mutation in huntingtin (HTT) gene.
what processed are involved in neuronal cell death?
dysfunctional protein metabolism, oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, inflammation, poor brain repair
features of proteasome dysfunction in parkinson’s
loss of alpha but not beta subunits of proteasome, reduced activity, protein aggregation, lewy bodies
what is oxidative stress?
imbalance of prooxidants and antioxidants with associate disruption of redox circuitry and macromolecular damage
when does excitotoxicity arise?
when glutamate accumulates at synapses
what occurs during inflammation?
microglia become activated and release toxic factors, astrocytes become activates and lose their ability to recycle glutamate, loss of trophic support from target
