Abstract

A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW ON ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Lingaraj Anwal*, Sandeep Chandakavate, S. Lalitha and M. K. Thilagasundari

ABSTRACT

Alzheimer‟s disease is one of the neurodegenerative diseases of brain which is progressive multifarious, irreversible, insidious disease of the brain which will starts slowly to destroy thinking skills, memory power finally it will affect a person to perform everyday activities. Alzheimer‟s disease is similar to that of coronary heart disease or ischemic heart disease (build-up of plaques in the wall of arteries that supply blood to the heart). Alzheimer‟s disease is mainly because of loss or degeneration of cholinergic neuron which starts in the hippocampus of the brain and it get centrifugal in the brain this leads to the deposition of special kind of tau protein which called neurofibrillary tangles inside the neuron and also accumulation of β amyloid protein called senile plaques outside the neuron. This disease starts after the age of 55-60 but in Down syndrome patients it starts earlier at the age of 40-45. Alzheimer‟s disease is cogitative impairment with loss of memory which can be occurred by inducing certain chemical agents in experimental animals which will be very helpful for the researcher to study the mechanism of action of anti-Alzheimer‟s drugs in animal models. Some of the chemicals used as inducing agents are Scopolamine, Okadaic acid, Trimethyltin, Streptozotocine, Colchicine, and some of the metal ions are used in animal models.

Keywords: Alzheimer?s disease, cognitive impairment, loss of memory, tau protein, ? amyloid, oxidative stress.