Neurodegenerative disease

Uncommon card · No. 77058

A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Neuronal damage may also ultimately result in their death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, multiple system atrophy, tauopathies, and prion diseases. Neurodegeneration can be found in the brain at many different levels of neuronal circuitry, ranging from molecular to systemic. Because there is no known way to reverse the progressive degeneration of neurons, these diseases are considered to be incurable; however, research has shown that the two major contributing factors to neurodegeneration are oxidative stress and inflammation. Biomedical research has revealed many similarities between these diseases at the subcellular level, including atypical protein assemblies (like proteinopathy) and induced cell death. These similarities suggest that therapeutic advances...

Read on Wikipedia · Image derivative work: Garrondo (talk) SEVERESLICE_HIGH.JPG: ADEAR: "Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral Center, a service of the National Institute on Aging." PRECLINICALSLICE_HIGH.JPG: ADEAR: "Alz…, Public domain