Martin Hallbeck

Cellular mechanisms behind neurodegeneration

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive disease that causes great suffering for the victims and relatives, in addition it cause large economic costs for society. The prevalence of dementia increases almost exponentially with age after 60 years and with increasing life-span the number of people with dementia is expected to rise rapidly. The leading cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease. It is a primary degenerative disease with progressive destruction of neurons in the central nervous system. The neuropathological characteristic is plaques and tangles, composed mainly of β-amyloid (Aβ) and abnormally phosphorylated tau. However, the pathological processes start inside the neurons long before plaques and tangles are seen.

The goal of our research is to identify and understand these early processes. In particular we focus on processes affecting axonal transport since this seems to be an early event in the disease development. It is speculated that both Aβ and abnormally phosphorylated tau could be important for these changes. Furthermore, it is well known that Alzheimer’s disease always propagates through the brain in a similar pattern. We want to understand the mechanism for this propagation which could be coupled to the mechanisms discussed above.