Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Current Neuroscientific Understanding Of Alzheimer's Disease, Rachel A. Brandes

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative neurological illness characterized by the deterioration of brain regions implicated in memory and cognitive function. While researchers have yet to find a cure or effective treatment, they have gained a better understanding of its pathology and development. Through years of neuroscience research, scientists have discovered much of what happens in the brain during Alzheimer’s disease onset and how this causes its symptoms; many hypotheses regarding this aspect of the illness involve temporal lobe atrophy, neurofibrillary tangles, and amyloid plaques. Although Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people every day, it seems that most are unaware of …

Crohn’S Disease Linked Polymorphisms Associated With Autophagy Contribute To Th17 Cell Induction Through Increasing The Expression Of Il-1Β And Tnf-Α, Daniel Clayton Morse

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

Abstract

Genome wide association studies (GWAS) have linked polymorphisms in autophagy genes to Crohn’s Disease (CD). Interestingly, recent studies have shown that defective autophagy leads to increased levels of the cytokines IL-1b and TNF-a, which play a critical role in Th17 cell differentiation. This is significant because CD is marked by a Th17 cell mediated inflammatory response. This article examines the manners in which defective expression of autophagy linked proteins, can indirectly amplify and sustain Th17 cell induction through increasing the production of Th17 positively differentiating cytokines (IL-1b and TNF-a) and decreasing the production …