Towards a molecular genetic approach to Alzheimer's disease

The current observations of a familial form of Alzheimer's disease and the alterations in the neurochemistry of Alzheimer tissue including neurotransmitter deficits, paired helical filament and RNA degradation suggest that the modification of specific genes may be responsible for the disease. These genes may be identified with the use of complementary DNA probes synthesized from normal and Alzheimer mRNA. In characterizing the gene expression in demented tissue, we have found that RNA from Alzheimer frontal cortex and hippocampus was partially degraded compared to RNA isolated from control. However, the polyadenylated RNA exhibited no obvious degradation. Similarly, polysome content of the Alzheimer tissue was lower than in control tissues. In addition, the Alzheimer polysomes were much less efficient in protein synthesis.