THE FORMATION OF ALZHEIMER'S PLAQUES IN SYNTHETIC MEMBRANES

A ccording to the Alzheimer’s Society, 200,000 people in Ontario suffer from some type of dementia; 1 million are expected by 2030. One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease is the formation of senile plaques in the parenchyma or functional tissue of the brain through the aggregation of amyloid-b peptides. While the role of these plaques in the pathology of the disease is not clear at this point, the mechanism behind peptide aggregation is a topic of intense research and discussion. Membranes are believed to play a key role in this process and serve as a nucleation point for amyloid-b aggregation . Soluble amyloid-b peptides in the a-helical conformation undergoes a transformation into an insoluble, b-sheet structure, which provides a site for further plaque growth.