Cholinergic neurons and Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative brain disorder. The incidence of the disease increases with age and every year the total number of affected persons is higher. The malfunction of various mental functions is a typical feature of Alzheimer's disease, including loss of short-term memory and development of personality changes. It is now generally accepted that the main cause of the disease is increased production of r3-amyloid fragments that mediate toxic effects and lead to r3-amyloid plaques formation. Alzheimer's disease and also normal aging are accompanied by a loss of cholinergic neurons and weakened cholinergic neurotransmission. In my thesis I dealt with changes in the brain chol inergic system during aging in control mice and in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (APPswe/PS1 dE9). In this context I also investigated in vitro influence of docosahexaenoic acid (w-3 essential fatty acid) changes in membrane cholesterol content on the expression of cholinergic phenotype in the NG108-1 5 cholinergic cell line. I also performed ex vivo experiments on rat brain cortex to investigate the characteristics of action of muscarin ic agonist xanomeline that was developed as a selective muscarinic agonist to strengthen signalization through the muscarinic M1 receptor in Alzheimer's disease. The experiments on..