Dementia

 Every 4 seconds someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease it's the most common cause of dementia affecting over 40000000 people worldwide and yet finding a cure is something that still eludes researchers today. Dr Alice Alzheimer's a German psychiatrist first described the symptoms in 1901 when he noticed that a particular hospital patient had some peculiar problems including difficulty sleeping disturbed memory drastic mood changes and increasing confusion. 

When the patient passed away Alzheimer's was able to do an autopsy and test his idea that perhaps her symptoms were caused by irregularities in the brain structure. What he found beneath the microscope were visible differences in brain tissue in the form of misfolded proteins called plaques and neurofibrillary tangles those plaques and tangles work together to break down the brain structure. Zacks arise when another protein in the fatty membranes surrounding nerve cells get sliced up by a particular enzyme resulting in beta amyloid proteins which are sticky and have a tendency to clump together that clumping is what forms the things we know as plaques these clumps block signaling and therefore communication between cells and also seem to trigger immune reactions that cause the destruction of disabled nerve cells in Alzheimer's disease neurofibrillary tangles are built from a protein known as to how the brain's nerve cells contain a network of tubes that acts like a highway for food molecules among other things usually the tau protein ensures that these troops are straight allowing molecules to pass through freely but in Alzheimer's disease the protein collapses into twisted strands or tangles making the tubes disintegrate obstructing nutrients from reaching the nerve cells and leading to cell death. The destructive pairing of plaques and tangles starts in a region called the hippocampus which is responsible for forming memories that's why short term memory loss is usually the first symptoms of Alzheimer's the proteins then progressively invade other parts of the brain creating unique changes that signal various stages of the disease at the front of the brain the proteins destroy the ability to process logical thoughts next they ship to the region that controls emotions resulting in erratic mood changes at the top of the brain because paranoia and hallucinations and once they reach the brain's rear the plaques and tangles worked together to race the mines deepest memories eventually the control centers governing heart rate and breathing are overpowered as well resulting in death. 

The immensely destructive nature of this disease has inspired many researchers to look for a cure but currently they're focused on slowing its progression. One temporary treatment helps reduce the breakdown of a subtle choline an important chemical messenger in the brain which is decreased in Alzheimer's patients due to the death of the nerve cells that make it another possible solution is a vaccine trains the body's immune system to attack beta amyloid plaques before they can form clumps but we still need to find an actual cure Alzheimer's disease was discovered more than a century ago and yet still it is not well understood. Apps one day will grasp the exact mechanisms at work behind this threat and a solution will be on earth.