THE MYSTERY AND HISTORY OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Even though the malady of dementia has existed for thousands of years, the correlated neurodegenerative alterations taking place in certain regions of the human brain were detected in recent times. Today, we are aware that dementia is a primary manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In 1907, Alöis Alzheimer described the symptoms of a 51-year-old woman, Auguste Deter, who was under his observation at the state Asylum in Frankfurt (Germany). Alois Alzheimer noticed the existence of unusual accumulations in the brain (described as amyloid plaques today) and a massive loss of neurons while examining the brain of his first patient that suffered from memory failure, bizarre behavior and abnormal personality before death. With the enhanced lifespan, direct and indirect health expenditures of patients suffering from AD have increased exponentially. There is neither an appropriate experimental model for testing the memory of animals akin to human memory nor any cure for AD. It is important to investigate the past events resulting in AD to comprehend the present scenario and gain insight into the future. The authors have described in this review article the risk factors, symptoms, and the historical milieu of Alzheimer’s disease comprehensively so that meaningful conclusions could be drawn from past experiences, thereby speeding up the progress of the fabrication of a suitable experimental model that would be useful in identifying new anti-Alzheimer agents, thus facilitating the unearthing of safe medicines, which in turn would rescue the entire mankind from this deadly disease.