ROS effects on neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease and related disorders: on environmental stresses of ionizing radiation.

Neurodegenerative processes associated with Alzheimer's disease are complex and involve many CNS tissue types, structures and biochemical processes. Factors believed involved in these processes are generation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), associated inflammatory responses, and the bio-molecular and genetic damage they produce. Since oxidative processes are essential to energy production, and to other biological functions, such as cell signaling, the process is not one of risk exposure, as for cigarettes and cancer, but one where normal physiological processes operate out of normal ranges and without adequate control.