Recent advances in our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases associated with aging indicate that most of these diseases are associated with amyloid accumulation. These diseases include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, amytropic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (CJD, Mad Cow's disease, scrapie, kuru) as well as diabetes mellitus type II (degeneration of the islet ß cells of the pancreas). Amyloids are fibrillar deposits composed of abnormally folded proteins that have a common "cross beta" structure, even though the different diseases contain different types of amyloid proteins. Recent findings also suggest that the amyloids have a common mechanism for causing the degeneration of specific populations of cells. This seminar series will explore the common and unique features of these diseases and focus on the mechanisms for their pathogenesis and potential therapeutic strategies.
