Neurodegeneration
is a progressive process that occurs with normal aging with accelerated loss of
normal functioning and structure of neurons. The physiological aging of neurons
can be expedited by many different factors like neurodegenerative diseases
(NDs) including frontotemporal lobe degeneration (FTLD), Alzheimer's disease
(AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), vascular dementia (VaD), etc. In the clinical
view, the symptoms of different types of neurological disorders have a high degree
of similarity, making it difficult for differential diagnosis. Clinicians need strong
expertise to reach a correct diagnosis for a particular disease as there are so
many established clinical guidelines for the diagnosis of different types of
neurological disorders. Here, in this chapter, we shall focus to understand the
different molecular diagnostic tools and immunological markers used for the
detection of neurodegenerative disorders.
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, BSE (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy), CJD (Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease), CSF (Cerebro Spinal Fluid), CWD (Chronic wasting disease), Dementia with Lewy bodies, FFI (Fatal familial insomnia), Frontotemporal lobe degeneration, GSS (Gerstmann– Stra ¨ussler–Scheinker syndrome), Immunology, Marker, Molecular diagnostics, Mutation, Neurodegeneration, Neurodegenerative diseases, PrPSc protein, Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies, Scrapie, Vascular dementia, vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease).
