Just another thing to add, we don't really have reliable ways to tell if someone is going to get or is currently developing Alzheimer's until symptoms set in- which makes it difficult to study. Further, most data we can get from human patients is gathered after they die (though I believe there are several long-term clinical trials that are begining to collect patient data during the development of the disease).
So the issue becomes developing models to study the disease (often in mice and cells cultured on plates). Turns out there's lots of ways to cause a mouse to have neuron degeneration, and not all of them are precisely what causes Alzheimer's disease. As a result, giving an exact and certain answer to this question isn't really possible (if it was we would be a lot closer to treating the disease).
For the most part, characteristics of the disease involves build up of misformed proteins in the brain. Some form outside of neurons (so called amyloid beta plaques) and some form within neurons themselves (amyloid fibrilary tangles). In most cases, the build up of proteins themselves does not seem to cause disease, but it may be a necessary step in some (not all) disease cases. So a lot of research is focused around how the body deals with misfolded proteins (which is related to some forms of cholesterol management, the blood-brain-barrier, waste removal, etc.) and how these proteins are misfolded in the first place.
Unfortunately, the nervous system is really complicated system, and there will likely never be a single answer to what causes this disease. It's similar to asking why a car breaks down- anything within the complicated system of a car can cause it to stop working. Sometimes it's an empty fuel tank, sometimes it's a loose cable. Often the breakdown of a car is accompanied with loud knocking or ticking noises from the engine- so it's important to study and understand the cause and effect of the knocking sound- but it's not the only reason a car stops working. Similar to Alzheimer's disease, amyloid plaques and Tau tangles are often associated with Alzheimer's (and we should ABSOLUTELY study the cause and affect of them) but (in my opinion) it's going to take a lot of dedicated work to understanding more about the nervous system as a whole to say for sure what's going on in any given case of Alzheimer's disease.
darthjeff2 t1_iu8upkj wrote
Reply to What does Alzheimer’s actually do to the brain? by uncmfrtbly_rspnsv
Just another thing to add, we don't really have reliable ways to tell if someone is going to get or is currently developing Alzheimer's until symptoms set in- which makes it difficult to study. Further, most data we can get from human patients is gathered after they die (though I believe there are several long-term clinical trials that are begining to collect patient data during the development of the disease).
So the issue becomes developing models to study the disease (often in mice and cells cultured on plates). Turns out there's lots of ways to cause a mouse to have neuron degeneration, and not all of them are precisely what causes Alzheimer's disease. As a result, giving an exact and certain answer to this question isn't really possible (if it was we would be a lot closer to treating the disease).
For the most part, characteristics of the disease involves build up of misformed proteins in the brain. Some form outside of neurons (so called amyloid beta plaques) and some form within neurons themselves (amyloid fibrilary tangles). In most cases, the build up of proteins themselves does not seem to cause disease, but it may be a necessary step in some (not all) disease cases. So a lot of research is focused around how the body deals with misfolded proteins (which is related to some forms of cholesterol management, the blood-brain-barrier, waste removal, etc.) and how these proteins are misfolded in the first place.
Unfortunately, the nervous system is really complicated system, and there will likely never be a single answer to what causes this disease. It's similar to asking why a car breaks down- anything within the complicated system of a car can cause it to stop working. Sometimes it's an empty fuel tank, sometimes it's a loose cable. Often the breakdown of a car is accompanied with loud knocking or ticking noises from the engine- so it's important to study and understand the cause and effect of the knocking sound- but it's not the only reason a car stops working. Similar to Alzheimer's disease, amyloid plaques and Tau tangles are often associated with Alzheimer's (and we should ABSOLUTELY study the cause and affect of them) but (in my opinion) it's going to take a lot of dedicated work to understanding more about the nervous system as a whole to say for sure what's going on in any given case of Alzheimer's disease.