ABSTRACT
Age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are posing an increasing impact on society, mainly due to increasing life expectancy. AD is characterized by the presence of neurofibrillary tangles and neuritic plaques in
postmortem brain tissue (Figure 2.1). Plaques consist of extracellular aggregates of amyloid beta (Abeta) peptides derived from amyloid precursor protein (APP), accompanied by inflammation and astrogliosis. Tangles are intraneuronal accumulations of insoluble and hyperphosphorylated tau, a microtubule-binding protein (Hardy, 2003).
