Genetic classification of primary neurodegenerative disease.

Review During the past 10 years (the "decade of the brain"), some of the genetic causes of many of the primary neurodegenerative diseases, which include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, prion disease, and many ataxic syndromes, have been found. These breakthroughs mean that for many of these diseases we now know the initiating trigger as well as the final outcome. These diseases have many pathological mechanisms in common, and there may be relatively few pathways to neuronal death seen in these disorders. Thus, treatment strategies developed for a particular disease may be found to have efficacy in more than one disorder.