GENERAL CORTICAL INVOLVEMENT IN A LATE-ONSET CASE OF ALZHEIMER-DISEASE - A BIOCHEMICAL APPROACH BY QUANTITATION OF ABNORMAL TAU PROTEINS

We have performed a biochemical mapping of the neurofibrillary degener ation in all cortical areas of Alzheimer patients, using the immunolog ical quantification of pathological tau 55, 64, and 69. These abnormal ly phosphorylated proteins, which are the basic components of PHF, are reliable markers of the degenerating process in Alzheimer disease. He re, we report our biochemical findings on a brain from a 90-yr-old wom an with an 8-yr history of Alzheimer disease who exhibited dramatic an d general cortical involvement. The detection of these markers was ver y high in all Brodmann areas, even in primary motor, somatosensory, or visual cortex. This case report contrasts with other studies, which s uggested that a more virulent disease process is generally associated with an early onset and argues for the heterogeneity of the disease. M oreover, we show here that the immunodetection of abnormal tau protein s using the western blot method is a precise, reliable, and reproducib le way to quantify the degenerating process in AD.