Quantitative studies on gene regulatory pathways for Alzheimers disease

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia an illness of the brain that affects a person’s ability to carry out daily activities. Memory, emotions, mood, behaviour and language are all affected, and because the disease is progressive, the symptoms worsen over time. There are many forms of dementia, but Alzheimer’s disease is the most common among older people. In the disease’s early stages, people most often notice memory problems that can be severe enough to interfere with their ability to work or carry out everyday tasks. It’s normal for people to forget some things as they get older mild forgetfulness or the occasional difficulty in finding a word is not necessarily cause for alarm. But in Alzheimer’s disease, the change is more dramatic. People tend to forget things that they used to remember, like names, words, and where they’ve put everyday objects. More importantly, this difficulty is persistent, progressive, and severe, and there is usually a noticeable, rapid decline in cognitive skills. Alzheimer’s disease is the most frequently seen form of dementia and it’s frighteningly common in older people. In 2010, more than 500,000 Canadians were living with AD or a related dementia [1]. Of these, approximately 71,000 are under the age of 65. 1 in 11 Canadians over 65 has dementia . Women account for 72% of all Alzheimer cases, and 62% of all dementia cases [2, 3] . Today in Canada, over 450,000 people over the age of 65, and 1/3 of those over 85, have Alzheimer’s disease or a related disease. What’s more, as the country’s 10 million baby boomers grow older, the number of people with the disease is expected to rise considerably [4].