The genetic causes of neurodegenerative diseases.

With the application of molecular genetics, we are now beginning to understand the etiology and the early stages of pathogenesis of the major neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Pick's disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. Surprisingly, these studies are showing that these diseases share pathogenic mechanisms which involve tau or synuclein aggregation. In this article, I review the progress in the molecular genetic analysis of these major neurodegenerative diseases and discuss how they are related to each other.