Amyloidopathy is a neurological disease that results in the degeneration of populations of nerve cells due to the formation of extracellular amyloid plaques. *** NEEDS REVIEW ***

http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ND_0000186

Is this term unique to neurological diseases? According to the following wikipedia entry, amyloidosis can occur in other organs such as the heart. Does this pose a problem for our classification schema? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyloidosis "In medicine, amyloidosis refers to a variety of conditions wherein amyloid proteins are abnormally deposited in organs or tissues and cause harm. A protein is described as being amyloid if, due to an alteration in its secondary structure, it takes on a particular aggregated insoluble form, similar to the beta-pleated sheet. Symptoms vary widely depending upon where in the body amyloid deposits accumulate. Amyloidosis may be inherited or acquired." UPDATE [01/14/2014]: Discussions about this issue have led to the proposal that 'amyloidopathy' be retained as a neurological disease specific term while 'amyloidosis' (which amyloidopathy is a subclass of) should be used as a general term for diseases that involve abnormal deposition of amyloid in any region of the body. A compelling reason for this decision is that the term 'amyloid' is historically applied loosely in the medical literature. For example, at least 24 proteins have been identified as constituents in amyloids and, in most cases, amyloid is not the primary protein constituent.

Amyloidopathy is a neurological disease that results in the degeneration of populations of nerve cells due to the formation of extracellular amyloid plaques. *** NEEDS REVIEW ***

Alexander P. Cox

amyloidopathy

ND:0000186

amyloidopathy

http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ND_0000113