Biochemistry of Neurodegeneration
Scientists are striving to understand the biochemical processes fundamental to neurodegenerative diseases: "There is tremendous urgency right now to determine which processes cause the destructive mechanisms that we see in neurodegenerative diseases ... oxidative stress, whatever its origin, is capable of causing the cytoskeleton of this artificial system to collapse in the same way that it does in diseased or aging brains. ... One of the future experiments planned by the team is to induce oxidative stress in the presence of key proteins thought to be involved in the underlying causes of the brain pathologies associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases to see whether these proteins accelerate the damaging effects." This is interesting in light of recent research into the biochemistry of cell death in Alzheimer's.