Neurodegenerative diseases a growing concern…
Reference:
“Protein aggregation and degradation mechanisms in neurodegenerative diseases”
Accessed January 27, 2014. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3601466/
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Have you or a member of your family been forgetting important events lately?
Has it been a dilemma in their life?
It is possible that it is due to a neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s which are increasingly becoming
common in society ?
Neurodegenerative diseases are the gradual failure of the normal function of areas of the brain. As the name suggests, “neuro” means nerve cell or neuron and the meaning of “degenerative” is the overtime loss of brain function. How is the loss of function in the brain caused? Within regions of the brain extracellular or intracellular components are formed from the collection of disease- specific proteins. That is the deposition of abnormal protein.
What are the contributing factors? Well, neurodegenerative disease is either brought about by genetic mutations or environmental stresses.
How does the human body deal with such diseases? The normal functioning of the human body allows mechanisms in which it is able to effectively resolve misfolded proteins by the protein quality control system or PQC. This system detects the misfolded proteins and takes action by either unfolding or degrading it, in which the peptides and amino acids are regenerated. However in the case of neurodegenerative diseases the PQC system is overwhelmed and thus more proteins are accumulated that unfolded.
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Is there such a thing as a cure? There is still no definite cure for such diseases or disorders, scientists have been able to develop treatments, however these only gradually reduce the progression of the diseases.
References for pictures
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/120-a110/
biochemasterz 