The central nervous system controls vital functions by ef?ciently coordinating peripheral and central cascades of signals and networks in an orchestrated manner. Historically, the brain was considered to be insulin independent. These earlier views have been challenged by ?ndings demonstrating that insulin exerts multiple actions in the brain, regulating vital biological processes such as life span, neuronal survival, cognition, reproduction, feeding behavior, energy balance, and glucose and fat metabolism, and that inef?cient central action of insulin contributes to the development of severe...

The health of the proteome depends upon protein quality control to regulate the proper synthesis, folding, translocation, and clearance of proteins. The cell is challenged constantly by environmental and physiological stress, aging, and the chronic expressions of disease associated misfolded proteins. Substantial evidence supports the hypothesis that the expression of damaged proteins initiates a cascade of molecular events that leads to Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's disease, and other diseases of protein conformation.

This volume contains the proceedings of the meeting Genetics and Alzheimer's Disease held in Paris, on March 25,1988, by the Fondation Ipsen pour la Recherche Therapeuti que. This meeting was the second of the series of Colloques Medecine et Recherche devoted to Alzheimer's disease. The first one was held in Angers (France) on September 14, 1987; the proceedings of this meeting have already been published and are entitled Immunology and Alzheimer's Disease (1988, edited by A Pouplard-Barthelaix, J Emile, and Y Christen). The third Colloque Medecine et Recherche, organized in Montpellier on...

Fondation Ipsen sponsored a meeting in Paris in February 2000 on the emerging paradigm-shift in our understanding of the major degenerative diseases which affect the aging human brain. This book sumarizes our deliberations on some of these major neurodegenerative diseases that are characterized by protein depos its, and that are due to the pathogenic gain of function of an otherwise normal neuronal protein. For each of the major human neurodegenerative diseases covered in this book -the most prominent being Alzheimer's disease -experimental models are described, including cell culture systems...

This volume contains the proceedings of the ninth "Colloque medecine et recherche" of the Fondation IPSEN devoted to research on Alzheimer's disease. This symposium was held in Lyon on June 21, 1993, on the topic, "Amyloid Protein Precursors in Development, Aging and Alzheimer's Disease." The choice of this venue and of this particular subject was not a matter of chance. As far as the history of medicine and neurology is concerned, Lyon is doubtless one of the most famous cities in France and the F ondation IPSEN had to organize one of its meetings in this city which has been regarded for...

From large cross-sectional studies of autopsy material, it seems as if a time course of Alzheimer's Disease, at least on average, can be mapped out: a pattern of hierarchical vulnerability for neuronal loss and neurofibrillary tangles beginning in medial temporal lobe structures proceeding through association areas. Plaques follow their own temporal course, with widespread cortical deposits occurring even early in a disease process. The whole process may well take twenty years, the first half of which may be without overt symptoms.

The health of the proteome depends upon protein quality control to regulate the proper synthesis, folding, translocation, and clearance of proteins. The cell is challenged constantly by environmental and physiological stress, aging, and the chronic expressions of disease associated misfolded proteins. Substantial evidence supports the hypothesis that the expression of damaged proteins initiates a cascade of molecular events that leads to Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's disease, and other diseases of protein conformation.