Abstract
Neurodegeneration can be described as a progressive damage and eventually death of neuronal cells, affecting the proper function of the whole of the central nervous system. Neurodegeneration leads to diseases called neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and others. Despite major recent research efforts, there is still no effective available disease-specific treatment for individual neurodegenerative diseases. However, clinical findings and observed pathologies of neurodegenerative diseases have focused research towards the molecular level. The target is to study in an effective manner the indicated molecular changes which eventually lead to neurodegeneration. The field of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) consists of some powerful experimental techniques which allow the study of living cells, and even single biomolecules, in the nanoscale. Thus, it has attracted significant scientific attention over the past few years, and, due to recent advances in the state-of-the-art technology it encompasses, has been established as a key factor in the study and visualizing of neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, AFM principles, modes, and trends are presented with respect to their application in visualizing neurodegeneration.
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Acknowledgments
This research has been co-financed by the European Union and Greek national fundsthrough the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under thecall Regional Excellence (Research Activity in the Ionian University, for the study of protein folding in neurodegenerative diseases) (FOLDIT) MIS 5047144.
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Cheirdaris, D. (2023). Visualizing Neurodegeneration Using Atomic Force Microscopy. In: Vlamos, P., Kotsireas, I.S., Tarnanas, I. (eds) Handbook of Computational Neurodegeneration. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75922-7_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75922-7_4
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