The simple new technique could offer vastly superior predictions of disease severity in a huge range of conditions with a genetic component, including Alzheimer’s, autism, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, schizophrenia and depression.
Frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that is present in tens of thousands of Americans, but is often difficult to diagnose accurately. Now in a study published this week online ahead of print in Neurology, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found evidence that a simple eye exam and retinal imaging test may help improve that accuracy.
In new research, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have converted skin cells from healthy adults directly into motor neurons without going through a stem cell state. The technique makes it possible to study motor neurons of the human central nervous system in the lab. Unlike commonly studied mouse motor neurons, human motor neurons growing in the lab would be a new tool since researchers can’t take samples of these neurons from living people but can easily take skin samples.
A simple scratch-and-sniff test may one day be able to help identify some people at greater risk of developing Parkinson’s disease up to 10 years before the disease could be diagnosed, according to a new study published in the September 6, 2017, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Scientists have known that abnormal protein deposits and swarms of activated immune cells accumulate in brains of people with Alzheimer’s. Now researchers have untangled how these proteins and inflammation interact in lab experiments to reveal how therapies might reverse the disease process.
Tools to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease and latent tuberculosis are among the winning projects in the Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) challenge, a biomedical engineering design prize competition for teams of undergraduate students. The teams developed prototypes of devices that advance technology and improve human health.
A study led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers that tracked activity levels of 646 adults over 30 years found that, contrary to previous research, exercise in mid-life was not linked to cognitive fitness in later years.
Researchers have discovered a clue to the mechanism for neuronal degeneration and possible target for a therapeutic approach to these disorders.
People who get less rapid eye movement (REM) sleep may have a greater risk of developing dementia, according to a new study published in the August 23, 2017, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. REM sleep is the sleep stage when dreaming occurs.
A study led by researchers at Cedars-Sinai and NeuroVision Imaging LLC provides the scientific basis for using noninvasive eye imaging to detect the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s. The experimental technology, developed by Cedars-Sinai and NeuroVision, scans the retina using techniques that can identify beta-amyloid protein deposits that mirror those in the brain.
Cedars-Sinai neuroscience investigators have found that Alzheimer’s disease affects the retina – the back of the eye – similarly to the way it affects the brain. The study also revealed that an investigational, noninvasive eye scan could detect the key signs of Alzheimer’s disease years before patients experience symptoms.
A team led by scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Mayo Clinic has identified a basic biological mechanism that kills neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and in a related genetic disorder, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), found in some ALS patients. ALS is popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The researchers were led by J. Paul Taylor, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the St. Jude Cell and Molecular Biology Department and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator; and Rosa Rademakers, Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. The findings appear today in the journal Neuron.
Rutgers and Duke University professors explore how to improve care and reduce the use of antipsychotic medications in nursing homes
In a study looking at brain scans of people with mild loss of thought and memory ability, Johns Hopkins researchers report evidence of lower levels of the serotonin transporter — a natural brain chemical that regulates mood, sleep and appetite.
As Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia continue to become more prevalent, it may not be long before there is a push for legalizing physician-assisted death (PAD) in dementia cases in the United States.American officials must thoroughly consider the moral and social consequences of such an action, says an expert on medical ethics at Washington University in St.
The brains of aged chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, show pathology similar to the human Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain, according to a new, multi-institution research study.
Researchers from Yale University School of Medicine have discovered that defects in the transport of lysosomes within neurons promote the buildup of protein aggregates in the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s disease. The study, which will be published August 7 in The Journal of Cell Biology, suggests that developing ways to restore lysosome transport could represent a new therapeutic approach to treating the neurodegenerative disorder.
Researchers at Penn Medicine have discovered that a patient’s awareness of a diagnosis of cognitive impairment may diminish their self-assessment of quality of life.
Rita Cowell, Ph.D., has joined the Southern Research as Chair of the Neuroscience Department as it expands research and drug discovery efforts focusing on diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Loyola Medicine is participating in a landmark $100 million study of the effectiveness of using PET scans to detect Alzheimer's disease.
Older adults who consume alcohol moderately on a regular basis are more likely to live to the age of 85 without dementia or other cognitive impairments than non-drinkers, according to a University of California San Diego School of Medicine-led study.
Press can register here to livestream this special session through Newswise Live on Monday, July 31 at 7:30 PM EDT
Diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease and determining a patient’s prognosis is an inexact business, and that stands in the way of better personalized care and advances in treatment. A new study from The Ohio State University has identified a potential new way of confirming the disease and predicting a patient’s outlook.
The push to develop treatments for Alzheimer’s disease has yielded a greater understanding of the disease, but has failed to generate successful new drugs. To blame are the many undefined subtypes of mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. But if scientists grouped people with similar types of cognitive impairment, they could more precisely test the impact of investigational drugs, according to findings in a July 28 article in the journal Scientific Reports, a publication of Nature Research.
A new method may help determine whether a person has Alzheimer’s disease or frontotemporal dementia, two different types of dementia that often have similar symptoms, according to a preliminary study published in the July 26, 2017, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
In a new study published today, Arizona State University-Banner Health neuroscientist Salvatore Oddo and his colleagues from Phoenix’s Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) — as well as the University of California, Irvine, and Mount Sinai in New York — have identified a new way for brain cells to become fated to die during Alzheimer’s diseases.
People who carry a genetic susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease appear to be at greater risk of diminished cognition from sleep-disordered breathing than those without the susceptibility, according to new research published online, ahead of print in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
A report by the first Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention and Care identifies powerful tools to prevent dementia and touts the benefits of nonmedical interventions for people with dementia.
A new study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that measures of amyloid beta in the blood have the potential to help identify people with altered levels of amyloid in their brains or cerebrospinal fluid. Currently, the only way to detect amyloid beta in the brain is via PET scanning or a spinal tap.
Emergency and urgent hospitalizations are associated with an increased rate of cognitive decline in older adults, report researchers at Rush University Medical Center. The results of their study suggest that hospitalization may be a more of a major risk factor for long-term cognitive decline in older adults than previously recognized.
Three new gene variants, found in a genome wide association study of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), point to the brain’s immune cells in the onset of the disorder. These genes encode three proteins that are found in microglia, cells that are part of the brain’s injury response system.
Researchers have found cell receptors abnormally overexpressed in post-mortem brains of those with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, and that they can be inhibited in animal models to clear toxic protein buildup, reduce brain inflammation, and improve cognitive performance.
Depending on what generation you belong to, the term “improvisational dance” may conjure up images of beatniks grooving to the beat of bongos in a darkened coffeehouse or the black-clad Dieter gyrating to techno pop in a Sprockets sketch on “Saturday Night Live”.
Anyone can learn whether they carry mutations known to cause Alzheimer’s, frontotemporal dementia, and other fatal neurodegenerative diseases.
Research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, and Stanford University shows that disrupting just one night of sleep in healthy, middle-aged adults causes an increase in a brain protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Further, a week of poor sleep leads to an increase in another brain protein that has been linked to brain damage in Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.
Poor sleep may be a sign that people who are otherwise healthy may be more at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life than people who do not have sleep problems, according to a study published in the July 5, 2017, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers have found a link between sleep disturbances and biological markers for Alzheimer’s disease found in the spinal fluid.
New research by scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the United Kingdom and Indiana University School of Medicine gives the most detailed view yet of tau protein structures found in Alzheimer’s disease.
Saint Louis University researchers have received a $443,636 grant from the National Institute on Aging to investigate the relationship between the diabetes drug Metformin and dementia risk.
While often used interchangeably, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are not the same.
The connection between slowed walking speed and declining mental acuity appears to arise in the right hippocampus, a finger-shaped region buried deep in the brain at ear-level, according to a 14-year study conducted by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.
Faculty, staff and graduate students are taking on one of society’s most vexing health challenges: how to prevent or slow the onset of dementia through changes in diet and exercise. And what sets the Lifestyle Interventions Group apart is its inclusion of disciplines beyond the typical confines of brain science.
Patients can engage with the Ambient Activity Technology device any time to view family photos, hear their favorite music, and play games.
Mount Sinai researchers find this network central to Alzheimer’s disease susceptibility
In a recent feasibility study, BIDMC tested an anti-epileptic drug for its potential impact on the brain activity of patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease. The team documented changes in patients’ EEGs that suggest the drug could have a beneficial effect.
Going for a walk outside, reading, listening to music—these and other enjoyable activities can reduce blood pressure for elderly caregivers of spouses with Alzheimer’s disease, suggests a study in Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, the official journal of the American Psychosomatic Society. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
Study shows seniors with dementia are on the rise. Dr. Yves Joanette is available to speak about the disease.
Is it possible to prevent dementia from happening in the first place? That’s what a leading FAU neuroscientist plans to prove using an innovative approach that defies the idea that “one-size-fits-all” when it comes to battling Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinson’s disease and other related disorders. Using a personalized approach and precision medicine to reduce risk, this center is one of only a handful of centers in the world that focuses on dementia prevention.
The Mediterranean diet, rich in plant-based foods, is associated with a variety of health benefits, including a lower incidence of dementia.
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