Date of Award
2026
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Biological Science
Mentor
Dr. Meredith Rowe
Abstract
Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) have historically been explained through alternate hypotheses despite shared clinical hallmarks that lead to neuron loss. However, these varying explanations could not account for how disease onset begins among other individual issues. This thesis aims to show that mitochondrial dysfunction is a primary driver of neurodegeneration as well as a unifying mechanism shared between the three diseases. Evidence presented in this thesis will show that many issues can arise in mitochondria including issues with energy production, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), apoptosis activation, and calcium regulation. These issues occur early in disease progression and directly contribute to neuronal damage. Additionally, experimental evidence regarding AD, PD, and ALS shows that mitochondrial dysfunction alone is sufficient to drive disease development. Corrective methods targeting mitochondria have also demonstrated success in stopping or slowing disease progression. Taken together, these findings represent a different perspective on how neurodegeneration may begin as well as open up new methods for testing and therapeutic techniques in the future.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Citation Information
Johnson, Makenzie G., "Mitochondria as Primary Cause of Neurodegeneration: Evaluating Causality Across Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's, and Parkinson’s Diseases" (2026). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 78.
https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/undergrad-honors/78