Module Overview
The END of NBOA! This final module is an Integrative Summation of our journey through the NBOA landscape. You will learn about diagnostic tools for neuropathology, as well as researched treatments (both successful and unsuccessful).
A bit of homage to Jim Morrison's haunting The End: so 2020ish & quite the essence of Apocalypse Now (another great work)
- Chapter 18 Biomarkers and Diagnosis of Dementias
- Chapter 19 Advanced Alzheimeromics
- Chapter 20 Treatments: mostly failures, but with a glimmer of light
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Chapter 18
The advent of PET probes for AlzD (amyloid, tau) has heralded in a new era for the diagnosis and tracking of AlzD patients. Earlier biomarkers of pathology - volumetric MRI, and FDG-PET - nonetheless continue to provide valuable clinical and research data, as do newer CSF measures and blood-plasma analytics. The efficacy, invasiveness, and practicality of these approaches has great import both for individual patients and for efforts to earlier detect, research, and treat neurodegenerative conditions.
Chapter 19
While many imaging and molecular details of this monstrous dementia have been explored, two questions remain: (1) what exactly is AlzD? and (2) what do we do about it? Is it a viral infection or prion disease or metabolic disorder/Type III diabetes or inflammation or a vascular disorder or isit just plain amyloid plaques and tau tangles? A deeper understanding of the root causes of sporadic AlzD is in order if society wishes to deploy rational treatments. Along with the biological questions, there is a suite of molecular technologies in play such as IPSC cell and mouse models, CRISPR manipulation, and major developments in the genetics field. These methods loom large as we struggle to understand everything from cell pathology to population risks. We also include here several AlzD variants and co-morbidity along with differential diagnosis: overlapping pathologies might tie diverse dementias together and help to explain selective vulnerabilities.
Chapter 20
There is no treatment for AlzD and the other dementias are faring little better. This is not for lack of effort. We summarize strategies and outcomes (from mouse-model successes to clinical trial failures). After an initial focus on the mainstream thrust (by Big Pharma) in removing amyloid and preventing tau neuropathology, we charge through the gamut of second-line pharmacological approaches, followed by assorted niche technologies. This volume concludes with a Looking Ahead section.