Pathophysiology of Alzheimer's Disease: An Understanding between Health Professionals

Alzheimer’s Disease
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Alzheimer’s Disease
Etiology
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by multiple deficits that are manifested by memory impairment and cognitive impairments. AD is a neurological disorder that often causes brain shrinkage and brain cells dying, which affects daily functioning. The disease is characterized by memory loss and the loss of cognitive abilities. The risk factors include age, genetics, environmental factors, cardiovascular diseases, and metals. The elderly are at a higher risk of AD, which progresses as people age. In genetics, mutation of genes such as the amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene increases the risk of developing AD and family history (Van Giau et al., 2018). Environmental factors include smoking and pesticides.
Pathophysiology
The pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease is linked to changes in the neurotransmitter systems and processes. Altered procession of the APP protein is thought to influence βAP plaques, and the plaques are lesions in the brain and cerebral vasculature (Wiley & Haraldsen, 2017). When there is alerted APP processing, there is increased βAP, which causes plaque formation, then neurodegeneration, neuronal loss, and dementia. Neuronal cell death precedes Alzheimer's disease. Besides the Alzheimer's disease cascade hypothesis, there is the cholinergic hypothesis, where there is a decline in the acetylcholine neurotransmitter and impairment in nerve impulse transmission (Fan et al., 2018).
Signs and symptoms
Besides progressive memory loss and cognitive decline, patients with AD may present other symptoms, such as behavioral disturbances and physical decline. The cognitive impairments include language impairment, impaired motor function, sensory function, and performance impairment (Lukiw et al., 2020). The combination of the factors likely causes pate people living with AD to lose their ability to undertake daily functioning. Patients may also present other neuropsychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, agitation, depression, and hallucinations or delusions, which appear progressively depending on the patient. Memory loss first appears alone or together with systems, and AD patients tend to have language-related problems, difficulty ...