Neurodegeneration: Too Much of a Bad Thing Kills You

For many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, there are rare genetic forms of the disease and more common sporadic forms. Over the last 15 years, we have found all the genes involved in the rare genetic forms, but we have made little progress in understanding the causes of the more common sporadic cases. Over the last 5 years, we have shown that genetic variability in the amount of expression of the genes involved in the rare forms of the disease are a risk factor for the development of the sporadic cases of the disease. This strongly suggests that both forms of these diseases share common mechanisms and therefore that genetic animal models are likely to be useful for the development of treatments for all cases of these devastating diseases.
Page last updated Sep 26, 2008