About

This Wiki site is maintained by the Department of Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. Its aim is to provide information on neurodegenerative diseases that is useful to to carers, students and researchers.

Introduction

Neurodegeneration is the name given to the processes that lead to the death of cells in the brain and spinal cord. It contrasts with:

(i) necrotic cell death. This is caused by an acute injury, such as a penetrating wound, or by ischaemia, that is a reduction in the supply of oxygen to the brain because of stroke or heart attack.

and with:

(ii) apoptotic cell death is a normal developmental process. It is the planned or programmed death of unwanted cells.

One of the consistent feature of the neurodegenerative diseases is the formation of proteinaceous aggregates or inclusions. These may be found either outside or inside the dead or dying cells and are thought to be caused by abnormal interactions between proteins. Examples of extracellular aggregates are amyloid plaques in Alzheimers disease and aggregates of prion protein in bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease one of a number of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Examples of intracellular inclusions are the neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), Lewy bodies in Parkinsons disease and the Polyglutamine expanded protein aggregates in Huntingtons disease and related disorders.