Alzheimer's How does dementia develop?

Alzheimer's: how forgetting occurs in the brain

06/11/2013

More than 100 years ago, the neurologist Alois Alzheimer first noted and documented the suffering of a confused patient.

In the meantime, more than 24 million people worldwide have contracted the disease named after the neurologist. One third of the German population over 90 years old is suffering from a form of dementia. The tendency is rising. After the death of his elderly patient, the neurologist Alzheimer had examined the brain and discovered that the slowly decaying nerve cells in the brain region of the hippocampus are responsible for protein deposits, so-called plaques, which lie between the nerve cells. "Our research still revolves around these protein deposits today," says Alexander Drzezga, Director of the Clinic and Policlinic for Nuclear Medicine at the University Hospital Cologne.

The deposits tend to stick together. In the process, a lump structure forms over a longer period of time, which among other things leads to the symptoms of dementia. This is a simplified representation of the processes, as several factors affect the brain, which ultimately reacts with Alzheimer's from these processes. For example, the researchers were able to demonstrate the involvement of the hormone insulin in the disintegration of the brain. People with diabetes melitus type 2 are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than others.

"There is still much to discover," concludes Lutz Frölich, Head of the Department of Gerontology Psychiatry at the Central Institute for Mental Health in Mannheim. The diagnosis „Alzheimer“ could possibly be a collection of different diseases of the brain. The fact that proteins are already deposited in the brain decades before the signs of first dementia symptoms, without negative effects on brain performance, has long been known to the medical profession. The networking of nerve cells of different brain regions with each other probably plays a crucial role.

"The better the networking, the more man is immune to mental deterioration," says Andreas Fellgiebel, head of the Memorial Outpatient Department at the University Medical Center Mainz. And that's where the efforts for the future lie. The physician wants to investigate how a better network of nerve cells can be achieved among each other.

According to the alarming outlook for the 2013 World Alzheimer Report, the number of people with dementia is set to rise to more than 115 million by 2050. Ways of mastering this disease are more than necessary. (Fr)

Picture: Angela Parszyk