Alexander disease
Alexander disease noun: a rare, progressive, and usually fatal neurological disorder; classified as a leukodystrophy, it is fundamentally a disease of the brain’s astrocytes; caused by genetic mutations that lead to the abnormal accumulation of proteins, known as Rosenthal fibers, which destroy the protective myelin sheath in the central nervous system.
Noun
Alexander disease (uncountable)
- A rare, progressive, and usually fatal neurological disorder; classified as a leukodystrophy, it is fundamentally a disease of the brain’s astrocytes; caused by genetic mutations that lead to the abnormal accumulation of proteins, known as Rosenthal fibers, which destroy the protective myelin sheath in the central nervous system.
Forms of Alexander disease
| alternative form | Alexander's disease |
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Origin of Alexander disease
Named after the American physician Dr. W. Stewart Alexander, who was the first to describe the disorder in 1949.
Questions about Alexander disease
- What does Alexander disease mean?
- Alexander disease means a rare, progressive, and usually fatal neurological disorder; classified as a leukodystrophy, it is fundamentally a disease of the brain’s astrocytes; caused by genetic mutations that lead to the abnormal accumulation of proteins, known as Rosenthal fibers, which destroy the protective myelin sheath in the central nervous system.
- What part of speech is Alexander disease?
- Alexander disease is a noun.
Words near Alexander disease in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Alexander disease (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “Alexander disease.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/alexander_disease. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.