Pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease and dementia

The pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease is far from clear since it is still undetermined whether and how extracellular beta-protein and cytoskeletal degeneration of neurons, which are colocalized in the association neocortex of Alzheimer patients, are related to one another. By using beta-protein and other derivatives of the precursor protein, efforts to cause cell lesions comparable to neurofibrillary degeneration have been fruitless. However, the view that the amyloid issued from the polymerisation of beta-protein is neurotoxic, remains the most attractive. To fully explore this hypothesis, attention should be paid to neurons that participate in neocortical circuits and to factors that may influence their vulnerability, whether selective or not, to beta-protein and associated proteins.