Pathways to primary neurodegenerative disease

The neurodegenerative diseases are an increasing medical and social burden in developed societies. During the last century, and the early part of this, these diseases were defined and classified as separate clinicopathologic entities. However, during this decade, detailed genetic investigations and the use of molecular pathologic tools have suggested that many of these diseases share common mechanisms of pathogenesis. Here I argue that while these diseases have separate and distinct etiologies, these initiate few pathogenic processes that lead to cell death.