Involvement of Clearance Mechanisms in Alzheimer’s Disease and Hereditary Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy

The instructions for the paper are to write on the involvement of a few of the body’s natural clearance mechanisms in Alzheimer’s Disease and Hereditary Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (HCA). The clearance mechanisms involved specifically are astrocytes, aquaporin 4 and the glymphatic system. These all play a role in the diseases Alzheimer’s disease and Hereditary Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy and are involved in the clearance of waste products. The paper should include how the waste clearance mechanisms play similar roles, if they malfunction or there are mutations what is the resulting impact, as well as providing background information on the diseases and the clearance mechanisms. A couple of examples are aquaporin 4 (AQP4) and the glymphatic system are involved in clearance of beta-amyloid – a waste product that aggregates in the brain and is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. The paper should also explore the role of aquaporin 4 and the glymphatic system in the clearance of beta-amyloid in the brain, discuss the potential implications of impaired glymphatic system activation and decreased AQP4 expression for HCA, and present research findings that show genetic mutations associated with HCA affect astrocyte function and lead to abnormal beta-amyloid accumulation in the brain, and highlight the potential implications of understanding the roles of the glymphatic system, AQP4, and astrocytes in AD and HCA for future research and therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer’s disease.