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Initiation and propagation of neurodegeneration

Abstract

Although substantial progress has been made in understanding the molecular and pathological bases of neurodegeneration, there have been few successes in the clinic and a number of fundamental questions remain unanswered. Is this skepticism misplaced, or do the words of Sir Isaac Newton hold true, that “what we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean”?

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Figure 1: The amyloid cascade hypothesis.

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Acknowledgements

This article reports on some of the main points raised at the Herrenhausen Symposium on Neurodegeneration in Seeon, Germany (May 2010) during the session on the initiation and propagation of neurodegeneration. I thank A. Aguzzi, D. Rubinsztein, S. Sisodia, D. Edbauer and M. Meyer-Lühmann for reading this manuscript. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

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Correspondence to Christian Haass.

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Haass, C. Initiation and propagation of neurodegeneration. Nat Med 16, 1201–1204 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2223

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