Read a newspaper, ANY newspaper, and you will come across medical technologies such as reduction in infant mortality, development of vaccines and antibodies, and advances in the treatment of heart disease and stroke that have contributed to the recent increase in life expectancy. In 1900 the average life expectancy in the US was about 50 years and now it has risen to 73 years for men and 78 years for women 1.What does this mean in terms of quality of life? It means that with this increase in life expectancy, new epidemics such as dementia (deterioration of mental function) have been unmasked. The goal of the recent research on aging is to increase the quality of life and find the cause and a possible treatment for these new epidemics.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the elderly and denotes about 70% of all dementia cases 1. It causes more than 100,000 deaths each year and is the fourth leading cause of death after heart disease, cancer and stroke
[...] Researchers have proposed head injuries and HSV1 viruses as possible environmental factors and have also noticed a correlation between these two environmental factors and the e4 allele of the APOE gene. While HSV1 and head injuries alone account for some AD cases, when correlated with e4 allele, there seems to be more AD cases that fall into this category. Thus, the interaction between environmental factors (head injuries and HSV1 virus) and genetic factors (e4 allele of the APOE gene) seem to explain more AD cases more than any of these factors alone. [...]
[...] The focus of this paper will be to analyze three other possible environmental factors (in addition to the genetic factors) in the etiology (cause) of Alzheimer's Disease: head traumas; viruses (HSV1); and aluminum. It is especially interesting to look at the interaction of these environmental factors and genetic factors in contributing to AD. Genetics has been the main focus of research in the study of the disease of Alzheimer because it has been thought to be the main cause of Alzheimer's diseases (AD). [...]
[...] Recent research has focused on the possible causes of AD and this paper had summarized some of those researches. Genes such as the b-APP, PS1 and PS2 have been localized and are known to be possible causes of AD. The e4 allele of APOE gene is also know to be correlated with AD. With an increase in the e4 allele, there seems to be a higher risk for AD. But genetic factors are not the only possible causes of AD. [...]
[...] Although genetic researchers have made great contributions to the understanding of Alzheimer's disease in finding the APP, PS1, and PS2 genes and postulating their possible involvement in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease, perhaps the most important breakthrough has been the finding of e4 allele of Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene. Corder and colleagues found that when studying 42 late onset families with AD, APOE e4 allele shows a dose dependant increase in risk for AD 5. This means that individuals with two copies of the e4 allele on the average had an earlier age of onset than those with one e4 allele, who had an earlier onset than individuals with no e4 allele 5. [...]
[...] 93: 12575- Corder EH, Saunders AM, Strittmatter WJ, Schmechel DE, Gaskell PC, Small GW, Roses AD, Haines JL, Pericak-Vance MA Gene Dose of Apolopoprotein E type 4 Allele and the Riske of Alzheimer's Disease in late Onset Families. Science 261: 921- Roberts GW, Gentleman SM, Lynch Murray Landon Graham DI Beta amyloid protein disposition in the brain after severe head injury: implications for pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. J. Neurol Neutosurg. Psychiatry 57: 419- Mayeux Ottman Maestre Ngai Tang MX, Ginsberg Chun Tycko Shelanski M Synergistic Effect of Traumatic Head Injury and Apolipoprotein in Patient with Alzheimer's Disease. [...]
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