The Alzheimer's Association has an excellent interactive tour- "Inside the brain" - worth a look if you've not seen it. This section explains well, in simple terms, the normal brain and compares it to an Alzheimer's brain:
http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_4719.asp?WT.ac=Sidebar_Brain_Tour&type=sidebar
(On a side note, the slide with "thinking wrinkles" on this tour is especially cool!)
For selfish reasons, I want to start on the said topic with my research focus- tau protein.
This protein is mainly what makes up the tangles found in the brains of patients suffering with Alzheimer's and related diseases. If you've ever looked at railroad tracks, you've seen the different nuts, bolts, & ties there are, that keep the tracks in place. Well, the function of tau protein in nerve cells is somewhat similar. Nerve cells have similar 'tracks' used to transport any number of things back 'n forth from the cell body to the nerve terminal. When tau is on these tracks, it keeps them in place for as long as they are needed. This is one difference between railroad tracks in our world and those inside our neurons - the latter has 'dynamic' tracks, in that they are constantly being built and taken apart, depending on the requirements of a neuron are. I suppose a close analogy would be the moving staircase in "Harry Potter".
In disease, tau protein is no longer available to keep the tracks stable. As a result, the tracks disintegrate and eventually, the cells die.
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