Understanding the underlying causes of degenerative neural diseases

Degenerative neural diseases (DND), such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, motor neuron disease or multiple sclerosis, are becoming more prevalent in our ageing society. Here we explain why different DND classes display characteristic disease-specific symptoms, but also why they often share common features that can be triggered by a wide range of very different causes. Explanations are drawn from the complex biology of nerve fibres which are the cable-like processes of nerve cells that tend to be prime lesion sites in DNDs. We hope that our explanations will help GPs to improve their understanding of DNDs, which might then facilitate conversations with affected patients about their condition and also lower the threshold to engage in further reading on the topic.