ABSTRACT
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the major dementing disorder of the elderly, affecting 4 million to 5 million persons in the United States currently and predicted to involve 14 million Americans early in the new millennium (1). AD patients present a progressive dementia characterized by cognitive and memory loss, and AD brain exhibits several characteristic pathological findings including loss of cortical neurons (with corresponding loss of synapses), the presence of neurofibrillary tangles composed mostly of hyperphosphorylated tau (a cytoskeletal protein), and senile (neuritic) plaques (SPs) composed of a central core of aggregated amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) surrounded by dystrophic neurites and other moieties (1).
