Alzheimer's Diseases and the Type of Proteins Aggregates Involved

Alzheimer disease refers to the type of dementia that causes chronic effects on the brain. It develops from the failure of molecular protein breakdown between the neurons in the brain hence resulting in toxic conditions that affect an individual's memory. Alzheimer's Association defines the disease as a progressive form of dementia, which contributes to brain injuries hence negatively affecting a person's behavior, memory, and even thinking. These conditions interfere with a person's daily activities for the fact that they have difficulties in memory. Most patients who are diagnosed with this disease forget even the immediate things in the environment in which they reside. Alzheimer's chronic condition affects the brain hence distortion of memory and behavior.

Alzheimer's disease affects all individuals in society but according to health line survey, most patients affected are adults of 65 years and above (Guerreiro et al., 2013). However, research shows that family history and genetics act as a role in explaining the causes of the disease. Immediate family members with the disease are likely to suffer from Alzheimer's hence explaining that the disease is transmitted through hereditary. The disease has no exact cause and therefore, there is no cure. However, its treatment can slow the effects it causes to patients hence improving the conditions of people in society. Its symptoms culminate gradually putting a certain group of people into risk conditions especially older people. This is because they are likely to forget about their possession, important things like passwords, and even their belongings. There is, therefore, a likely of psychological disturbance since there are difficulties to problem-solving, personal hygiene, and trouble with familiar tasks. A person is forced to withdraw from the family, friends, and even the community.

Clinicians have conducted thorough research with the aim of diagnosing Alzheimer's diseases. Laboratory and medical tests related to Alzheimer's diseases give a predictable positive value showing that the effects of the disease can be slowed down (Serrano-Pozo et al, 2011). The laboratory diagnosis of Alzheimer's encompasses tests of body fluids and tissue samples in order to identify the problems and the disease. The common medical and laboratory tests used are urinalysis and blood tests. Blood tests include the series of blood removal that is done to help identify abnormalities that are intertwined with the blood and other disorders that can lead to brain damage and loss of memory. These tests are used to also help identify problems and disorder that contribute to Alzheimer's and dementia, which is a threat to human health and daily routine activities.

Physical examination also helps to identify problems and other disorders that contribute to Alzheimer's disease. This is the diagnosis and patient care process for the fact that it includes physical examination, which provides the clinician with more information about the patient. This helps the doctor to choose an appropriate plan for the diagnosis of the disease. Physical examination includes tests such as blood pressure, the pulse of the heart, and body temperature. Consequently, there is a measurement of physical body parts of an individual such as nerves, genitalia area, the neck, nose, to mention a few. Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease incorporates other medical methods such as CT scan, x-rays, MRI, and many others. Here, images of the patient are inserted into a computer like a device depending on the clinical history of the patient in order to measure organs that are affected by the disorder (Mayeux & Stern, 2012). Identification of these abnormal regions reveals the chronic effects that are attributed to Alzheimer's disease and therefore, developing an effective plan for diagnosis. There is also neuropsychological testing, which involves the psychological study of the brain and its relationship with behavior. This method helps to study the thoughts of an individual, attention, and concentration, understanding of language, and association. Psychological diagnosis of Alzheimer's diseases helps, therefore, to solve problems such as depression and anxiety, which according to Mayo clinic result to the worsening of the conditions of the patient.

Protein aggregates are also required in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's for the fact that lack of execution to their various biological functions results in the devastating disease. The insoluble proteins have beta strands with a denser morphology, which results in resistance in the proteolytic degradation. Mutations with these proteins cause diseases and disorder related to dementia hence a threat to human health. Similarly, the disorder develops due to the formation of protein aggregate failure to correlate with the neurodegeneration syndrome. This contributes to incomplete connections between the mutations in the genes and the codes of the aggregated proteins. According to clinician's view protein, folding is one of the complex paradigms in health (Hung & Link, 2011). The correct folding patterning makes it difficult to understand the correct structures that can be directed to diagnose brain disorders. For example, incorrect folding leads to amyloidosis disorder, which later transforms into Alzheimer's disease. Protein aggregates make an individual's intellectual capacity to disintegrate thus interfering with reasoning and memory.

Methods used to study protein aggregation include chemical unfolding, temperature jumps, and rapid oxidation. In chemical unfolding, the process includes unfolding the protein in high concentration chemical denaturant and then reversing the process by diluting the solution. The formation of native-like structures helps in initiating the proteins to work in an amicable way so that brain disorders are neutralized. Consequently, the use of temperature improves or measures the conditions of the disease by triggering the onset of the disorders. This improves the unfolding reaction hence making it easy for clinicians to investigate. There is also oxidation, which involves metalloproteinase hence triggering the unfolding reaction. Protein unfolding process involves the disintegration of the aggregate proteins making the process visible for investigation and diagnosis of the disorder.

The physical and chemical processes influence protein aggregation. All protein will aggregate based on the arrangement of the polypeptide structures. Chemical aggregation involves induced actions related to oxidation, which also influences tyrosine deamination. There is also bond shuffling hence formation and exchange of neurons and chemicals that facilitate the unfolding of the proteins. Physical degradation on the other parallel includes the adsorption to various interfaces in the brain and neuron structure. This contributes to unfolding or any other resultant aggregation hence controlling the colloidal stability of the proteins structures. The resulting also makes it easy to study the brain structure and discover the kind of disorders involved in Alzheimer's disease.

Cells and subcellular components help in making and removing protein aggregates that have difficulties with unfolding for the fact that they reduce free energy that creates contact between various residues. During the aggregate process, there is a loss of native structure due to insufficient energy. It forms a barrier between the cells and reaching the critical size of growth, they interfere with the nucleus growth. The protein aggregates, therefore, remain insoluble hence contributing to disorders related to brain, memory, and thinking. Cells play a primary role in the constant renewal of the synthesis and removal of insoluble proteins and organelles. The removal of neurodegenerative aggregates boosts the workability of the brain functions thereby easing the process of cell formation and investigating of various disorders that are likely to cause Alzheimer's disease. From the findings, cells failure, especially in the autophagy route, accumulates the unfolded protein aggregates, which further generates minor disorder that explicitly, necessitate to the brain disorders.

There has been developed by pharmaceutical companies such as Pharma to help diagnose the disease. According to research by 2018, most Companies have found that there is no permanent treatment for Alzheimer's disease (Mayeux & Stern, 2012). Most drugs help to treat patients from long-term effects for the fact that most patients are older. Experts reveal that drugs such as idalopirdine and antibiotics produce antibodies that fight Alzheimer's disease. Drugs have been associated with the breakage of building plagues of protein hence making it easy for assessment of the disease. At the same time, different companies are striving for various methods and drugs for the treatment of the disorder. Their discoveries depict that, all people including the middle age are likely to be affected by the disorder and the problems medical institutions are experiencing is how to identify such patients before the disorder sinks into the brain structure. The disease, therefore, can be treated by developing a clinical setting where people go for treatment before long-term effects. Consequently, there is a need for funding to help these medical facilities set effective equipment for the diagnosis of the disease.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Alzheimer's disease affects the brain hence interfering with memory, behavior, and thinking. The world is affected by Alzheimer's disease, which has resulted in cognitive impairment and mental disturbances. Findings have shown that there is a need for identification of the symptoms from the earlier stages to ease treatment. Disturbance of the brain functions also interferes with person routine activities.

References

Guerreiro, R., Wojtas, A., Bras, J., Carrasquillo, M., Rogaeva, E., Majounie, E., ... & Hazrati, L. (2013). TREM2 variants in Alzheimer's disease. New England Journal of Medicine, 368(2), 117-127.

Hung, M. C., & Link, W. (2011). Protein localization in disease and therapy. J Cell Sci, 124(20), 3381-3392.

Mayeux, R., & Stern, Y. (2012). Epidemiology of Alzheimer disease. Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine, 2(8), a006239.

Serrano-Pozo, A., Frosch, M. P., Masliah, E., & Hyman, B. T. (2011). Neuropathological alterations in Alzheimer disease. Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine, 1(1), a006189.