Cracking The Alzheimer's Code By Linda Marsa

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Recommended: A brief history of Alzheimer's disease

The article “Cracking the Alzheimer’s code” by Linda Marsa discusses the history, discoveries and advancements for Alzheimer’s disease. The discovery of Alzheimer’s disease was revealed through a German physician named Alois Alzheimer. Alzheimer first discovered Alzheimer’s in the year 1901 while he was interviewing a mentally Ill patient named Auguste Dexter. The beginning of his discovery was due to the fact that Dexter was exhibiting uncontrollable behaviors that included jealously, screaming, confusion and paranoia. After Dexter had passed away, Alzheimer saw this as an opportunity to examine her brain under a microscope in thin pieces. To Alzheimer’s surprise, he discovered two abnormal substances on brain slices that were called amyloid …show more content…

To find the culprit to stop tau proteins and amyloid peptides to function improperly, scientists realized that studying brains at an earlier age when they are alive would be best in their search to find a cure. Studying living brain tissue would introduce a lot more discoveries that dead brain tissue would not offer. Techniques like magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) and position emission tomography (PETs) are actually not as helpful in studying living brain tissue because they can provide up to a millimeter of focus on the brain but that would not be adequate to find the formation of the plaques and tangles which need more concentration to about a tenth of a milliliter. But there are new tools like the multi-photon confocal microscope that is better and more precise in looking at brain activity. Also the approval of Amyvid by the FDA has allowed for easier visuals on PET scans because its purpose is to dye the amyloid proteins that could not be seen in regular PET scans. From these astounding innovations, scientists are close to developing genetic tests that could determine the risk of an individual developing Alzheimer’s

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