payne_and_gain

a minor correction (you probably won't read it, but i want the record to be correct): tau is not found in huntington's. tau and a-beta are both found in alzheimer's, tau as intracellular tangles (that are eventually thought to propagate synaptically) and a-beta as extracellular plaques. huntingtin is the protein that is mis-aggregated in huntington's disease.

well i was referring more to the appearance of symptoms rather than the progression of the disease itself. sorry for the confusion.

wow you actually read this! anyway, just wanted to say this was a great ama.

i believe cjd is also extremely aggressive and rapid in progression, whereas alzheimer's progresses over the course of 10+ years (there are rare variants that are more aggressive). a crude (but unfortunately, mostly true) saying about cjd that neurologists sometimes make is "if the patient doesn't come back for a follow-up in six months, it was most likely cjd"

i think anyone who answers that questions completely will most definitely win the nobel prize.