Correlation of cholinergic abnormalities with senile plaques and mental test scores in senile dementia.

Abstract

Summary and conclusionsNecropsy brain tissue from normal (control) patients and patients with depression and dementia was examined for activities of various cholinergic components, and these related to the degree of senile plaque formation and extent of intellectual impairment. Choline acetyltransferase and acetylcholinesterase activities decreased significantly as the mean plaque count rose, and in depressed and demented subjects the reduction in choline acetyltransferase activity correlated with the extent of intellectual impairment as measured by a memory information test; muscarinic cholinergic receptor binding activity remained unchanged with increasing senile plaque formation but butyrylcholinesterase activity increased.The results suggest a close relation between changes in the cholinergic system and Alzheimer's dementia, but the precise role of the system in this disease remains to be elucid'ated.

Selective Antibody-Induced Cholinergic Cell and Synapse Loss Produce Sustained Hippocampal and Cortical Hypometabolism with Correlated Cognitive Deficits

“…The NBM also projects to the amygdala (1,18,67), while the diagonal band of Broca (DBB) and the medial septum (MS) innervate the hippocampus (16,65). In the present study, i.c.v.…”

“…Cholinergic degeneration is considered to be an important factor underlying memory deficits in neurological disease, such as dementia of Alzheimer's type, and even some Parkinson patients (10,72,74,79). Severity of dementia, number of plaques and, to some degree, loss of synapses, correlate with the degeneration of the cholinergic system in many Alzheimer's patients (27,65). The precise relationship of the septohippocampal cholinergic system to memory function and symptoms caused by cholinergic neuronal degeneration can be investigated if the model has selective neuronal and terminal loss.…”

Cognitive Enhancing Properties and Tolerability of Cholinergic Agents in Mice: A Comparative Study of Nicotine, Donepezil, and SIB-1553A, a Subtype-Selective Ligand for Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors

“…It has long been suggested that the cognitive deficits observed in normal aging and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) are, at least in part, due to a decrease in cholinergic transmission (Bartus et al, 1982;Perry et al, 1987;Gallagher and Colombo, 1995;Lawrence and Sahakian, 1998;Sirviö, 1999).…”

Brain muscarinic cholinergic receptors in Huntington's disease

“…Dementia in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease appears to be associated with degeneration of subcortico-cortical cholinergic systems [5,7,9]. While acetylcholine-containing neurons are damaged in the basal ganglia in Huntington's disease [2,10], the status of the cholinergic afferent projections to the neocortex and hippocampus is less clear.…”