The Neuropathology Core will provide brain tissue and diagnostic neuropathology evaluations on Alzheimer's disease patients and elderly individuals, both controls and those with mild cognitive impairment, to the researchers of the Program Project. This tissue will be obtained from subjects of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center Clinical and Religious Orders Study Cores. These individuals are closely following with annual neurological and neuropsychological examinations. There are four projects requiring brain tissue: project R07, Dr. J. Kordower, Dopaminergic mesocortical and nigrostrial system in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease; project RO8, Dr. E. Mufson, Galanin remodeling in the progression of Alzheimer's disease; project R09, Dr. L. Binder, Tau truncation and conformation in Alzheimer's disease progression, and project RO10, Dr. J. Kuret, Protein kinase markers of Alzheimer's disease progression. Each project requires both frozen and fixed tissue from the following clinical categories: severe Alzheimer's disease, moderate Alzheimer's disease, mild Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, and no cognitive impairment will be the Religious Orders Study Core. The Rush ADC Clinical Core and Religious Orders Study Core have provided an average of 36 and 20 cases, respectively, annually, over the last grant period. The Neuropathology Core will provide state-of-the-art neuropathological evaluation for Alzheimer's disease, using the NIA Consensus/Reagan diagnostic criteria. These criteria are uniformly applied and all data is directly entered into a computerized program at the time of collection. In addition, all stored tissue is indexed using a specimen tracking software program (FreezerWorks) facilitating reliable tissue distribution. The brain tissue and neuropathological data provided to the investigators of Projects 7, 8, 9, and 10 by the Neuropathology Core is critical for the success of the projects, and for the provision of seminal information about changes in the dopaminergic system and the functions of tau protein kinases and galanin in the progression of cognitive impairment in the elderly and those with Alzheimer's disease.
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