Can brain degeneration be combatted?
Neurodegenerative
Diseases
Brain
Degenerative Diseases such as Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
(ALS) and all forms of dementia including Alzheimer’s are all classified as
diseases affected by brain. Degenerative brain diseases have an enormous impact
on our aging society. Alzheimer's disease progressively robs its victims of
their memory. Parkinson's disease leads to impairments in movement.
Frontotemporal (occurring the front area of the brain) dementia causes
bewildering changes in a person's thoughts and behaviour. Huntington's disease
painstakingly deprives a person of their ability to walk, talk, think and
reason, often as early as in their mid-30s and 40s. In all of these
degenerative brain diseases, the time from the onset of symptoms until death
can be as many as ten or twenty years, with many sufferers' lives characterised
by a total loss of independence in their final years.[i]
Over
production of ROS (oxidative stress) is a central feature of all
neurodegenerative disorders.[ii]
There is strong evidence that mitochondrial
dysfunction and oxidative
stress plays a role in
neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis, including four of the more well-known diseases
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS).[iii]
Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's disease is characterised
by loss of neurons (specialized nerve cells) and synapses (nerve cell
signaling) in the cerebral cortex (outer layer of frontal part of the brain playing a role in
consciousness) and certain subcortical regions (functional, connective and
developmental areas of the brain). This loss results in gross atrophy
(shrinkage) of affected areas of the brain.
Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson's
disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. Parkinson's
disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. It
results from the death of dopamine-generating (neuro-transmitter that send
signals to other nerve cells).
Huntington's Disease
Huntington’s
Disease causes astrogliosis (decrease of brain and spinal cord cells) and loss of
neurons (specialized nerve cells). Areas
of the brain are affected according to their structure and the types of neurons
they contain, reducing in size as they cumulatively lose cells.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) also commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease
Amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) is a disease in which motor
neurons are selectively targeted for degeneration affecting movement and speech.
Aging and Neurodegeneration
The greatest
risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases is aging. Mitochondrial DNA
mutations as well as oxidative stress both contribute to aging. Many of these diseases are late-onset, meaning
there is some factors that change as a person ages for each disease. One
constant factor is that in each disease, neurons (specialized nerve cells)
gradually lose function as the disease progresses with age.[iv]
Cell health is imperative to mitigate
the damaging effects associated with degenerative disease.
[i] http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/research/cameos/DegeneratingBrain.php
[ii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodegeneration
[iii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17051205
[iv] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17051205
