Adithi Datla

What are the similarities and differences between Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Started July 14, 2022

Abstract or project description

Neurodegenerative diseases contain a wide range of cognitive disorders, two of which are Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). These diseases are correlated with the decrease of functions such as memory and movement and the number of patients being diagnosed with them are increasing by the day, with now 1.3% of the U.S. population being diagnosed with AD and 1% of the population being diagnosed with PD. AD and PD are neurodegenerative, which is what causes the effects of functionality loss, and the reason behind the degeneration of the cells lies in the aggregation of multiple proteins in the brain. It is widely known by scientists that misfolded proteins play a large role in the degeneration of cells in both AD and PD, but little comparison has been made between these two diseases in specific. A protein example in AD is the beta-amyloid protein, which is a toxic component broken down from another protein. This protein accumulates its toxicity and disrupts the cell’s function. A protein example in PD is alpha-synuclein, which builds up in the disease to cause the cell degeneration. Currently, the treatments available for AD and PD only ammeliorates the symptoms, but does not slows the disease progression, that is why is important to develop an effective treatment for both diseases. Both diseases, AD and PD, have similar functioning proteins that contribute to their cell degeneration, which leads to the belief that similar treatments may be developed for each respective disease. To further examine these proteins involved in the diseases and the treatments used against them, extensive research will be done using scholarly articles and papers from credible database sources such as PubMed Central. Through this project, I aim to compare and contrast the two diseases from the effects down to the treatments involved.