Feature Channels: Alzheimer's and Dementia

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Researchers have demonstrated that a protein called caspase-2 is a key regulator of a signaling pathway that leads to cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease. The findings, made in a mouse model of Alzheimer's, suggest that inhibiting this protein could prevent the neuronal damage and subsequent cognitive decline associated with the disease. The study was published this month in the online journal Nature Communications.

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A chemical hormone released in the body as a reaction to stress could be a key trigger of the mechanism for the late onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

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NitroMemantine is the first drug to halt the progression of synaptic loss and to even restore these connections between nerve cells. The combination drug is now headed for clinical trials.

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Scientists have measured a significant and potentially pivotal difference between the brains of patients with an inherited form of Alzheimer’s disease and healthy family members who do not carry a mutation for the disease.

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Multiple drug classes commonly prescribed for common medical conditions are capable of influencing the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

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People afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia have a profound need for harmony and often exhibit behavioral issues when they are experiencing internal chaos. To assist caregivers—both family and professional—with creating an atmosphere of harmony, the staff at the Comprehensive Services on Aging (COPSA) Institute for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey has produced a series of free educational videos, available on the COPSAEducation YouTube channel (http://bit.ly/13YCWUD)

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$1.7M NIH collaborative grant backs researchers' work on web-based WeCare, which will help caregivers better understand, assess, and treat behavioral changes in those with dementia.

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People who develop a type of irregular heartbeat common in old age called atrial fibrillation may also be more likely to develop problems with memory and thinking, according to new research published in the June 5, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Research has shown that healthy behaviors are associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia, but less is known about the potential link between positive lifestyle choices and milder memory complaints, especially those that occur earlier in life and could be the first indicators of later problems.

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Blood offers promise as a way to detect Alzheimer’s disease at its earliest onset, Mayo Clinic researchers say. They envision a test that would detect distinct metabolic signatures in blood plasma that are synonymous with the disease -- years before patients begin showing cognitive decline. Their study was recently published online in the journal PLOS ONE.

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An Alzheimer’s disease protein controls the speed at which materials move through brain cells, and defects could lead to deadly pileups of the kind seen in neurodegenerative disease, a new publication finds.

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Teams of highly respected Alzheimer’s researchers failed to replicate what appeared to be breakthrough results for the treatment of this brain disease when they were published last year in the journal Science.

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A new study looking at sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and markers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and neuroimaging adds to the growing body of research linking the two.

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People who have skin cancer may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, according to new research published in the May 15, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The link does not apply to melanoma, a less common but more aggressive type of skin cancer.

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Using long-term patient data, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that many of the biomarkers for Alzheimer’s identified in recent years can help accurately predict the start of full-blown disease years in advance.

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A drug developed by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, known as J147, reverses memory deficits and slows Alzheimer's disease in aged mice following short-term treatment. The findings, published May 14 in the journal Alzheimer's Research and Therapy, may pave the way to a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease in humans.

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Mutations in genes that regulate cellular metabolism found in families with ataxia, dementia and reproductive failure.

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Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists discover that cholinesterase inhibitors allow signals to enter the brain with less background noise. And the drugs work in the sensory cortices, not the more sophisticated processing regions.

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Scientists’ picture of how a gene strongly linked to Alzheimer’s disease harms the brain may have to be revised, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.

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A University of Iowa study shows that older people can put off the aging of their minds by playing a simple game that primes their processing speed skills. The research showed participants' cognitive skills improved in a range of functions, from improving peripheral vision to problem solving. Results published in the journal PLOS One.

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Elderly patients who receive anesthesia are no more likely to develop long-term dementia or Alzheimer’s disease than other seniors, according to new Mayo Clinic research. The study analyzed thousands of patients using the Rochester Epidemiology Project -- which allows researchers access to medical records of nearly all residents of Olmsted County, Minn. -- and found that receiving general anesthesia for procedures after age 45 is not a risk factor for developing dementia. The findings were published Wednesday, May 1, online in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

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A UAB study suggests that the Mediterranean diet, which urges consuming foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, chicken and salad dressing, and avoiding saturated fats, meat and dairy foods, may be linked to preserving memory and thinking abilities.

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Research Identifies Potential Therapeutic Targets for Late Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (LOAD) By Revealing a Network of Genes Involved in the Inflammatory Response.

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Alzheimer's researchers know the disease is caused by toxic beta amyloid and tau lesions, yet, the recent failure of emerging therapies targeting these lesions suggest that successful treatments will require diagnosis of disease at its earliest stages. Now, by using computer-aided drug discovery, researchers are in the process of developing an imaging chemical that attaches predominantly to tau-bearing lesions in living brain, opening the door for earlier diagnosis – and better treatments for tau-involved conditions like Alzheimer’s, frontal temporal dementia and traumatic brain injuries.

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Neuroscientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have taken a major step in their efforts to help people with memory loss tied to brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

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Studying rats’ ability to navigate familiar territory, Johns Hopkins scientists found that the hippocampus uses remembered spatial information to imagine routes the rats then follow. Their discovery has implications for memory loss due to Alzheimer's disease and aging.

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Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida participated in a nationwide study that found minor differences between genes that contribute to late-onset Alzheimer’s disease in African-Americans and in Caucasians.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have shed light on one of the major toxic mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease. The discoveries could lead to a much better understanding of the Alzheimer’s process and how to prevent it.

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African-Americans with a variant of the ABCA7 gene have almost double the risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s disease compared with African-Americans who lack the variant. The largest genome-wide search for Alzheimer’s genes in African-Americans, the study was led by Columbia University Medical Center. It will be published in JAMA (4/10/13 issue).

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In a meta-analysis of data from nearly 6,000 African Americans, Alzheimer disease was significantly associated with a gene that have been weakly associated with Alzheimer disease in individuals of European ancestry, although additional studies are needed to determine risk estimates specific for African Americans, according to a study in the April 10 issue of JAMA, a Genomics theme issue.

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Researchers from the Indiana University Center for Aging Research and the Regenstrief Institute are conducting the nation’s first randomized controlled dementia screening trial to weigh the benefits and risks of routine screening for dementia. The results of the five-year trial will help policy-makers, individuals and families weigh the pros and cons of routine screening of adults age 65 and older.

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A technology being developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory promises to provide clear images of the brains of children, the elderly and people with Parkinson’s and other diseases without the use of uncomfortable or intrusive restraints.

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Joint study by U-M Health System and RAND estimates total dementia care costs at $159- $200 billion a year, expected to nearly double with aging population

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UCLA researchers have used a brain-imaging tool and stroke risk assessment to identify signs of cognitive decline early on in individuals who don't yet show symptoms of dementia.

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A study in mice with genetic mutations seen in human Alzheimer's disease found that the feeling of hunger itself may protect against the disease.

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Experts at the George Washington University are available to comment on President Obama's announcement about a new initiative to better understand the human brain.

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Risk prediction tools that estimate future risk of heart disease and stroke may be more useful predictors of future decline in cognitive abilities, or memory and thinking, than a dementia risk scores, according to a new study published in the April 2, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Most older adults with dementia can successfully be taken off antipsychotic medications, which have negative side effects and increase the risk of death, finds a new evidence review from The Cochrane Library.

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The strongest predictor of whether a man is developing dementia with Lewy bodies — the second most common form of dementia in the elderly — is whether he acts out his dreams while sleeping, Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered.

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More symptoms of depression and lower cognitive status are independently associated with a more rapid decline in the ability to handle tasks of everyday living, according to a study by Columbia University Medical Center researchers in this month’s Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

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Injecting synthetic tau fibrils into animal models induces Alzheimer's-like tau tangles and imitates the spread of tau pathology, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania being presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego March 16-23, 2013.

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Research at UNT Health Science Center suggests that depression and diabetes may be of particular importance in this population and even that the blood profile of Alzheimer’s is different among Mexican Americans as compared to non-Hispanic whites.

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A new drug may improve memory problems in people with moderate Alzheimer’s disease, according to a phase IIa study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013. The drug is called ORM-12741.

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Sleep is disrupted in people who likely have early Alzheimer’s disease but do not yet have the memory loss or other problems characteristic of full-blown disease, researchers report March 11 in JAMA Neurology.

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An anti-atherosclerosis drug greatly reduced blood-brain barrier (BBB) leaks in animal models with diabetes and hypercholesterolemia and linked BBB permeability with amyloid peptide deposits at the site of early Alzheimer's pathology.

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Studies in mice with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have shown that sodium phenylbutyrate, known as Buphenyl, successfully increases factors for neuronal growth and protects learning and memory, according to neurological researchers at the Rush University Medical Center.

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At the Keystone Symposium “New Frontiers in Neurodegenerative Disease Research,” held 4-7 February in Santa Fe, New Mexico, researchers explored the processes that lead to a variety of diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS). Several presenters described damage that genes undergo as people age, pointing to DNA breaks as a potential step on the way to disease. Others discussed a new component of the protein tangles that characterize Alzheimer's disease. Researchers also reported progress in understanding how two proteins, TDP-43 and FUS, cause ALS. See Alzforum’s four-part series

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UCLA scientists have discovered a new genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease by screening people's DNA and then using an advanced type of scan to visualize their brains' connections.

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Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a new potential benefit of a molecule in green tea: preventing the misfolding of specific proteins in the brain.

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Researchers have identified a possible treatment window of several years for plaques in the brain that are thought to cause memory loss in diseases such as Alzheimer’s. The Mayo Clinic study is published in the Feb. 27 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.