Alzheimer's disease

American  

[ahlts-hahy-merz, alts-, awlts-] / ˈɑlts haɪ mərz, ˈælts-, ˈɔlts- /

Or Alzheimer disease

noun

Pathology.

1. a common form of dementia, believed to be caused by changes in the brain, usually beginning in late middle age, characterized by memory lapses, confusion, emotional instability, and progressive loss of mental ability.

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Alzheimer's disease British  

/ ˈæltsˌhaɪməz /

noun

1. Often shortened to: Alzheimer's.  a disorder of the brain resulting in a progressive decline in intellectual and physical abilities and eventual dementia

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Alzheimer's disease Scientific  

/ äls′hī-mərz /

1. A progressive, degenerative disease of the brain, commonly affecting the elderly, and associated with the development of amyloid plaques in the cerebral cortex. It is characterized by confusion, disorientation, memory failure, speech disturbances, and eventual dementia. The cause is unknown. Alzheimer's disease is named for its identifier, German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer (1864–1915).

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Alzheimer's disease Cultural  

1. A disease in which mental capacity decreases because of the breakdown of brain cells.

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Alzheimer's disease is a major cause of loss of intellectual function in middle-aged and elderly people.

Etymology

Origin of Alzheimer's disease

Named after Alois Alzheimer (1864–1915), German neurologist, who described it in 1907

Example Sentences

"And if it did, then we knew we'd found a functional enhancer and could then figure out which gene -- or genes -- it controls. That's what happened for about 150 of the potential enhancers we tested. And strikingly, a large fraction of these functional enhancers controlled genes implicated in Alzheimer's disease."

From Science Daily

Cutting the list from 1000 candidates to about 150 confirmed switches greatly reduces the search area in the non-coding genome for genetic clues linked to Alzheimer's disease.

From Science Daily

"When researchers look for genetic changes that explain diseases like hypertension, diabetes and also psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease -- we often end up with changes not within genes so much, but in-between," she says.

From Science Daily

Astrocytes are brain cells that support neurons, and they are known to be involved in Alzheimer's disease.

From Science Daily

"This idea that astrocytes can deliver molecules to induce brain plasticity has implications for many neurological disorders, including other neurodevelopmental disorders like fragile X syndrome but also maybe even to neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease," Brandebura said.

From Science Daily