title: Aging, the brain and human prion disease.
abstract: Human prion diseases (PrD) preferentially manifest in the elderly. Their neuropathology may coexist with tau immunoreactive neuropil threads, neurofibrillary tangles, and beta-amyloid senile plaques, most likely representing an age-related change rather than a pathogenic link with Alzheimer's disease. Cerebrovascular disease with brain infarction, another malady preferring the elderly, is useful to prove the origin of PrD-associated prion protein deposition exclusively from neurons.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurology, University of Vienna, Austrian Reference Center of Human Prion Diseases, AKH 4J, P.O. Box 48, Wahringer Gurtel 18-20, 1097, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Gábor G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Kovács
authors.forename: Herbert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Budka
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D011328:Prions / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D011328:Prions