Summary
Recent genetic studies have clearly shown that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has several aetiologies. Some cases have defined mutations in the β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene, others do not. Persons with Down’s syndrome presumably get AD because they constitutively overexpress APP. Despite these differences in aetiology, all cases seem to have similar clinical and pathological features. The simplest explanation of the fact that there are several aetiologies, but a single pathology, is that a pathological cascade occurs which can be triggered in several ways. It is not yet clear whether there are small clinical and pathological differences between cases with different aetiologies.
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Hardy, J. (1992). Alzheimer’s Disease: many Aetiologies; one Pathogenesis. In: Boller, F., Forette, F., Khachaturian, Z.S., Poncet, M., Christen, Y. (eds) Heterogeneity of Alzheimer’s Disease. Research and Perspectives in Alzheimer’s Disease. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46776-9_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46776-9_11
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