Neuroscientific Basis of Dementia (Tanaka, C., McGeer, P. L., and Ihara,
Y., eds., Birkhauser Verlag, Basel-Boston-Berlin, 2001, ISBN
3-7643-6205-7)
The volume “Neuroscientific Basis of Dementia” is devoted to
the problems of dementia and contains the papers presented at the
International Symposium in Kobe (Japan) in September 1999. In this
volume current data concerning the problems of dementia beginning from
the molecular basis of this disease to diagnostics and therapy are
presented. The book begins with papers of Y. Nishizuka and P. McGeer
devoted to the problems of inflammation in the nervous system and
intracellular signaling system involving protein kinase C and lipids of
the cell membrane. The other papers are grouped into five chapters. The
first chapter deals with memory formation and its impairment in
neurodegenerative diseases. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are devoted to
pathogenesis of dementias and involvement of different protein factors
in their development. Eight papers of the chapter 2 are about the
involvement of protein
tau into pathogenesis of various
neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's
disease, and lateral amyotrophic syndrome. Chapter 3 contains three
papers devoted to the role of synuclein in the pathogenesis of
Alzheimer's disease and the possible use of this protein as a target
for the development of drugs preventing the progress of dementia.
Chapter 4 presents thirteen papers of leading researchers on the role
of presenilins and the protein amyloid in the pathogenesis of dementias
of various types. The last chapter of the book includes five papers on
the diagnosis and therapeutics of neurodegenerative diseases
particularly the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The
reader will find a rich intellectual array in this volume. Key aspects
of a vast and scattered literature have been neatly drawn together to
provide an integrated view of one of the major medical problems of our
time.
I. A. Grivennikov, Ph. D.
