Molecular Neuropathology

s OFTWARE Electrophysiology of the Neuron, A Companion to GM. Shepherd’s Neurobiology, An Interactive Tutorial by]. Huguenard

or outside

or the mem-

brane conductances one can find out such things as which ions are important generation

for the

of action potentials and so on.

But I’m afraid that

and D.A. McCormick, Oxford University Press, I994. f 13.95

reproducing

I computer disk, Mac and PC versions available) ISBN 0 I9 509167 I

(74 pages +

the membrane

REVIEW

even though

I was

on my computer screen simu-

lations of the classic experiments Electrophysiology

is a tough nut to crack.

Its understanding

relies on a sound knowl-

edge of many basic principles of chemistry, electricity

and mathematics - topics many

neurobiologists therefore,

seek

to

avoid.

Many,

never really understand

or ap-

preciate the finer points of such delights as the

Nernst

Equation.

of Electrophysiology

The

of the

authors

Neuron

-

An

to be found for those without computer.

the aid of a

What would be more stimulat-

great men as Hodgkin, and, of course, their

Huxley

famous squid giant

ing is a trace or two from a real live ex-

axon, they left me cold. Chapters on the

periment

electrophysiological

complete

whose computer As with

with sound for those

many computer

manuals the

accompanying book is a bit dry and difficult to wade through written

properties,

make the

were

more

Neuroscience

is in need of this kind of

subject much more accessible would be to

surely a sign of a future

put the entire

computer

in computer

form. It is

I feel they don’t

an admirable task but one

on disk - as a

HyperCard document perhaps or maybe as

ics. As computers

become more affordable one can envisage

in future editions. If the under-

graduate as well as the electrophysiology-

a plethora

ignorant neuroscientist

disk or CD-ROM

computer-style the better. The authors have

through

programmed

computer

actual

computer

simulations

electrophysiological

of

experiments

book I’m sure they would and ultimately understanding

many of the experimental

lations deal with very important historic breakthroughs

simu-

and often

in the electrophysi-

enjoy it more

have a better

small tutorial

written

delight to work pointed

on the

chance of

it. For example, I found the in HyperCard

through

a

and was disap-

the electrophysiology

plots appear on the computer

The program

experiments

starts with

such fundamentals as the resting potential and action potential.

accompanying

book - where most of the traces are also

parameters

appearing

paving the

trying

of

to get hold of a copy in London

bookshops

is anything to go by, the pub-

lishers may wish to shrink-wrap and disk together

with

this book

some copies of

Shepherd’s Neurobiology.

Gregor Campbell Deptof Anatomy and Developmental Biology, University College London, Cower Street, London,

By changing various

such as ion concentration

UK WC1 E 6BT.

in-

BOOK Molecular Neuropathology

Prion-related disease

edited by Goreth W. Roberts andjulio

on

for students and teach-

way. One last note, if my experience

of

no more exciting than looking at them on page of the

of information

accessories

ers alike. This disk is therefore

with it.

simulations

the

printed

and their

I couldn’t work through all

that

ology of the neurone I felt that seeing the screen was

entirely

instead of having to refer to the

with the comfort Although

could slowly work

the experiments

for the reader to generate and manipulate of their own computer.

towards

a CD-ROM

quite pull off, which is a pity as I believe we can all learn

trend

simulations on all kinds of top-

the more

neuroscience

and

approach to learning and this first effort is

ate this situation by explaining the basics of

program

their synaptic

interesting

easier to follow.

although it is amusingly

in places. What would

properties of neurones

of the CNS, and particularly

can process sound.

Interactive Tutorial have attempted to allevielectrophysiology

of such and Katz

M. PO/& Combridge University Press, I995

(ix + 189 pages) ISBN 0 521 42558

f37.95

are

diseases and Alzheimer’s ideal

addressed together

I

degenerative

REVIEWS

companions in relation

to

be

to neuro-

diseases: they are both dis-

orders that affect people in mid- to late The study of neurodegenerative was once

the

domain

neuropathologists

of the

disorders German

and psychiatrists. By the

encodes the prion protein have now been

life; there

found

forms of both; and they are characterized

that

phenotypes.

account

for

different

In Alzheimer’s

clinical

disease, insol-

1980s. scientists had started to pull apart

uble tau protein

in neurofibrillary

the lesions that were found in the brain. In

and extracellular

deposits of amyloid

the 199Os, the Decade of the Brain, mol-

protein

ecular genetics has become the key tool

pathological

with

which

basis of

to search for the molecular

these

molecular

diseases,

neuropathology

The

field

of

are the major constituents

lesions B-

of the

lesions in this disease. Only

5-10% of cases are familial and reports

of

genetic advances have appeared biannually.

by

are sporadic

abnormal

processing/conformational

changes in normal cellular proteins. the

development

neuropathology certain. While

of the

many hypotheses

book,

the

significance

In 1991, mutations

and

protein were found to be the cause of the

pathology

cellular

the

disease in a small number

of families. In

of treating Alzheimer’s

inheritance of faulty genes and the clinical

1993, the apolipoprotein-E

type-e4

B-protein

presentation

was implicated as a risk factor for a pro-

of the disease, often late in

life. In prion-related

diseases, a normal cel-

lular form of prion protein

(PrP) accumu-

lates in an abnormal form (PrP”), possibly

Science

Ltd. All tights

was written

as

the disease. This summer,

in a flurry

gramme at the Royal Postgraduate Medical

further

mutations

in two

of

genes

(S182 and STM2) were found to account for a large proportion

tlsevier

amyloidosis.

Molecular Neuropathology

activity,

familial cases.

0 1996,

in favour

disease solely as a

an adjunct to the respected training pro-

as the result of a stochastic conformational

Copyright

of neurofibrillary

has been overlooked

portion of the late-onset sporadic forms of

change. Many mutations

in the gene that

allele

abound,

an open view needs to be taken. In this

find

level in the brain, between

characteristic

of these diseases is un-

aims to

precursor

The

mechanism by which these genes lead to

out what happens, at the molecular

in amyloid

and hereditary

reserved.

0166

2236/96/$1.5.00

of the remaining

School.

It

Alzheimer’s

has

focused

primarily

on

disease and the prion-related

diseases, partly

because of the advances

made with these disorders and because of

T/MSvol.

19. x0.

4, 1996

1.55

BOOK REVIEWS the

research

expertise

of the

the most recent

authors.

articles

While these are commendable reasons for

1992, with the exception

cited are from

interspersed within chapters in the section

of articles writ-

on applications (for example, the chapter

such a focus, the book suffers from a poor

ten by the authors themselves and occa-

on transgenes).

coverage of other disorders. For example,

sional notes tacked on at the proof stage.

such as in-situ hybridization,

the discovery of the Huntington’s

Citation

selves particularly

disease

gene in 1993 after a ten-year

search was

surprisingly

ITI 5 gene

overlooked.

The

contains an expanding trinucleotide repeat

that

codes

Furthermore,

for

the

of

mouse model, I99 I, further

retracted

from

Nature in

serves to date this volume.

Once hooked, graduates would do well to

(CAG)

polyglutamine.

number

of the infamous APP transgenic-

repeats

correlates with severity of disease and age

some techniques, lend them-

to neurobiology,

others

like isolation of RNA and the polymerase chain reaction

(PCR) are applicable over

the full range of biomedical sciences. This

read some recent reviews on Alzheimer’s

book is by no means exhaustive in its cov-

and prion-related

erage of techniques

diseases to bring them-

The brevity

of onset, and also increases in sequential

(for

example,

chemical analysis of pathological

selves up to date. of the chapter

generations, a phenomenon termed antici-

banks camouflages the often

pation. Repeats of the trinucleotide

effort

that

While

essential for

creating

on brain underrated

a successful

production

of antibodies,

bio-

lesions,

transfection

of

eukaryotic

cells and confocal microscopy

are

covered

not

in

this

volume).

codes for glutamine are found in several

bank. Hidden in the small print, as is the

Nevertheless,

other disorders, which suggests that they

custom

graph that gives a good and concise back-

represent

of their

namesakes in the High

it is a well-produced

Street, is the issue of funding. While brain

ground

introduction

in the genetics of inherited

neurological

banks are not the most attractive

tential

of

disorders.

be learned

for financial support,

about

a common Much

the

is yet

molecular

of Huntington’s forms

and novel principle to

disease. Similarly,

of dementia

gressive supranuclear basal degeneration), important

transmitting

PhD

references

be able to apply their own brains liberally

requests for log of hippocampus from an

to the unanswered

individual Alzheimer’s

in this field of research. Maybe then the

types of

in

at the end of each chapter

politely.

If patients

did

of one of the

to this book. Then they will problems that remain

Decade of the Brain will lead to much-

have that much tissue, then Alzheimer’s

needed therapies for Alzheimer’s

disease would

and other neurodegenerative

be significantly

less of a

disease

disorders.

Charles R. Harrington

Molecular Neuropathology is divided into

of

two

sections

is

techniques

more

trary,

Unfortunately,

with

that and

Unfortunately,

literature.

disease patient need

in the laboratories

problem than it is.

enthusiasm for A wealth

to be answered

there to enable the novice to search out detailed

by the applications described in

this book either go on the training course

bankers. For example, ardent researchers’

succeeds

student.

attracted

provide

research, which is essential to attract the prospective

requirements.

I

contributors

disease have shed light on

the authors’

research. It is not an easy

satisfy everyone’s

its delayed publication.

would recommend that graduates who are

or work

on the pathogenesis

Neuropathology

molecular-

research. It suffers mainly from problems associated with

right’ needs to be kept in mind by today’s

the molecular basis for these disorders. Molecular

for

po-

neuropathology

The old adage that ‘the customer is always

rarer

of dementia just as the different

diagnosed

to the exciting

molecular

than

palsy and cortico-

disease, might well

to

properly

brain tissue remains an

prerequisite

neuropathology job

dementia, pro-

although

information

prion-related

essential

other

(Picks disease, Lewy

body disease, frontal-lobe

Alzheimer’s

and well-preserved

neuropathology

option

mono-

are on

based upon their

Cambridge Brain Bank Laboratory,

the

MRC Centre,

application.

Hills Road, Cambridge,

the division is rather arbi-

sections on techniques

UK C62 2QH.

being

Histology of the Nervous System

You do not have to dip far into this translation to realize that he would

by Santiago Ram6n y Cajal. Translated into English from the French edition by Neely Swanson

probably

not bother to read the review journals at

and Larry W. Swanson, Oxford University Press, I99.S. $195.00 (I 6 72 PPj

all. He was concerned with original obser-

/SBN 0 I9 507 4017

vations, with making his own observations and repeating those of others. His judge-

Many neuroscientists Cajal’s well-known

have long related to Histologie du Systeme

ments might have been glowing or acerbic,

about

but they rarely relied merely on second-

the nervous

system and its cells.

hand opinions.

Nerveux de I’Homme et des Vertebres as our

Perhaps surprisingly, it can also be used for

youngest

Playboy

checking details that might not be readily

some

available elsewhere. Above all, it is a book

lation

in which to gain an intimate acquaintance

observations far more accessible than they were

son once

Magazine.

When,

Playboy illustrations

related after

to

finding

in the boys’ room,

I

before,

Cajal’s

and for

grateful to the translators

it; he had only

with

ers. However,

Now that Cajal’s great French classic from

ment

I91 I is available in a fine, fluent

most importantly,

translation,

it should attract

English

many to the

and beyond descriptions,

to the passionately but

also

to

detailed

savour

the

tation,

of

details and develop-

neurohistology

and,

its functional

is communicated

with

perhaps interpre-

clarity

and

The book appears at an opportune

time

and

and the publish-

one vital part

of Cajal’s

essential style was his illustrations.

These

often make one feel as though one has a direct acquaintance with the original material.

excitement.

this trans-

thoughts

that we must be

and original mind whose total involvement the discovery,

dedicated

neuroscientist-s

make

with

at the pictures.

gifted,

many will

asked which of them had read the magalooked

an extraordinarily

For

zine, the youngest, aged six, denied reading

text; not only to look at the illustrations

They were

and, when

detailed,

in colour,

finely drawn

translucent

and

to give people a close view of Caial’s work

beautiful. In these two volumes, they are

and often belligerent, style in

and his style. Cajal has become a myth, so

terrible.

The text should be read with the

which Cajal describes the nervous system

much so that he was recently exploited to

original

volumes

and some of its discoverers.

sell a review journal with a flyer that asked:

impact of the illustrations.

picturesque,

This is a book for browsing. Also, even though it is a translation of an edition from

1%

I9 I I, it is still able to stimulate new ideas

TlVS Vol. 19, No. 4. 1996

at

hand

for

the

full

The McKnight

‘If Ramon y Cajal were alive today, which

Foundation for Neuroscience

did provide

review journal

some funds for reproducing

some of the

do you think

Copyright

he’d read?‘.

0 1996.

Idsevier Science

l.td. All nghts

reserved.

0166

2236/96/$15.00