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Alzheimer’s Disease

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Compendium of Inflammatory Diseases

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Synonyms

Alzheimer disease; Inflammation; Neurodegeneration

Definition

Alzheimer disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly and is frequently accompanied by emotional disorders, including agitation. The neuro-pathological hallmarks of AD include intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ) in a compact structure of outside neurons and inflammatory processes. Aβ is processed from a larger protein called amyloid precursor protein (APP) by processing enzymes (α-, β-, and γ-secretases) and is deposited in extracellular plaques known as senile plaques. Another pathological characteristic in the AD brain is intracellular NFTs composed of the microtubule-associated protein tau (MAP-tau), which undergoes chemical changes (hyperphosphorylation) and then begins to pair with other threads; it is accumulated inside the neuron cell to cause microtubule destabilization (Azizi and Mirshafiey 2012; Reitz et...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Imam Hassan Mojtaba Hospital, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran

    Gholamreza Azizi

  2. Research Center for Immunodeficiencies, Pediatrics Center of Excellence, Children’s Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, 14155, Tehran, Iran

    Gholamreza Azizi

  3. Department of Immunology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, 14155, Tehran, Iran

    Abbas Mirshafiey

Authors
  1. Gholamreza Azizi
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  2. Abbas Mirshafiey
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst of Clinical Pharmacology Haus 74/75, JW Goethe University Frankfurt Fraunhofer IME, Frankfurt, Germany

    Michael J. Parnham

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Azizi, G., Mirshafiey, A. (2016). Alzheimer’s Disease. In: Parnham, M. (eds) Compendium of Inflammatory Diseases. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-0620-6_98-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-0620-6_98-2

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  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-0348-0620-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Alzheimer’s Disease
    Published:
    24 June 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-0620-6_98-2

  2. Original

    Alzheimer Disease
    Published:
    28 April 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-0620-6_98-1

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