Old Age Memory Loss: Dementia and Mental Illnesses

Mental illnesses that are prevalent in older people during old age, which mostly display dementia as the main characteristic, such as Alzheimer have become a norm in the society and medical field. Those who are not in the medical field believe that these complications come with old age and that little can be done to contain their occurrence and effects, leaving every eventuality of the same on fate. On the other hand, those in the medical field view dementia and memory loss problems experienced in old age as having more effects than the forgetfulness and paranoia that the condition leads to. The people in the medical field believe that dementia is a fatal disease that eventually kills their victims by causing total brain failure once it gets to advanced stages, making the individuals' bodies unable to function. They end up dying slow, progressive deaths whose evident eventuality cannot be averted. A common disease that expresses dementia as a symptom is Alzheimer disease, which destroys the victims' cognitive functions while also wiping off their memory, with calls for the legalization of assisted suicides to help the victims of the disease die in a dignified way (considering the irreversibility of the condition) being on the rise from lobby groups. It is therefore crucial that the ordinary people are educated on the scientific processes and terms involved in the memory-loss process, with Hrisula Dervishi, Alison Shur and Dr. Alejandra del Carmen Alonso, all from the Department of Biochemistry in the College of Staten Island providing a scientific paper on the process of memory and cognizance loss.

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Typically, the microtubule-associated with protein Tau is found in the cytosol of the cell, but it has been found in the extracellular space too. Tau is a neural cytosolic microtubule which has phosphor-protein associations. When abnormally phosphorated, tau is commonly mentioned as a cause for several forms of dementia, for example, Alzheimer disease. In diseases that cause damage and degeneration of the neurons associated like Alzheimer's, harmful tau spreads from one neuron to the other, spreading the degeneration effects as it moves. However, apart from the degenerative effects that they have, tauphopathies are also linked to positive results, such as the filiamentious hyperphosphorylated Tau inclusions which, when disease-free, can be used in the development of the brain.

There has been substantial evidence presented pointing at the abnormal tau as the common denominator in the onset and progress of diseases. The tau located central nervous system is found in a family of six proteins that are derived from a single gene through alternation and splicing of the pre-MRNA found in it. Under normal circumstances, the human brain contains tau isoforms ranging between 352 to 441 amino acids, with differentiation on whether or not they contain between three and four tubulin-binding domains of either 31 or 32 amino acids. Expression of the isoform and the degree of phosphorylation found in them are regulated developmentally, and all the isoforms in them are reported to be hyperphosphorylated abnormally. When Alzheimer-causing tau contains a more significant amount of phosphates and proteins compared to the regular amount of proteins in phosphates. Using the model of a mouse, it is possible to observe how the amounts of tau can be regulated and also how the abnormal quantities and distribution of the same can cause damaging effects on the brain cells, creating what is Alzheimer in human beings.