By examining more than 3,600 postmortem brains, researchers at Mayo Clinic’s campuses in Jacksonville, Florida, and Rochester, Minnesota, have found that the progression of dysfunctional tau protein drives the cognitive decline and memory loss seen in Alzheimer’s disease.
A pre-clinical study published this week in Science Translational Medicine suggests that focused ultrasound may hold a key to providing a non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical approach to treating Alzheimer’s disease.
Penn Medicine researchers have discovered that hypermethylation - the epigenetic ability to turn down or turn off a bad gene implicated in 10 to 30 percent of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) - serves as a protective barrier inhibiting the development of these diseases. Their work, published this month in Neurology, may suggest a neuroprotective target for drug discovery efforts.
At the Keystone symposium “Neuroinflammation in Diseases of the Central Nervous System,” researchers bridged the gap between inflammation and neurobiology to uncover how the two influence neurodegenerative disease. Read Alzforum’s seven-part series for the highlights.
A new diet, appropriately known by the acronym MIND, could significantly lower a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, even if the diet is not meticulously followed, according to a paper published online for subscribers in March in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Researchers have developed a new scoring system to help determine which elderly people may be at a higher risk of developing the memory and thinking problems that can lead to dementia, according to a new study published in the March 18, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers at Mayo Clinic developed a new scoring system to help determine which elderly people may be at a higher risk of developing the memory and thinking problems that can lead to dementia. The study is published in the March 18, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a gene variant that may be used to predict people most likely to respond to an investigational therapy under development for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study, published March 12 in Cell Stem Cell, is based on experiments with cultured neurons derived from adult stem cells.
Older people who are physically active may be protecting themselves from the effects of small areas of brain damage that can affect their movement abilities, according to a new study published in the March 11, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
An existing epilepsy drug reverses a condition in elderly patients who are at high risk for dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease.
Doctors write millions of prescriptions a year for drugs to calm the behavior of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. But non-drug approaches actually work better, and carry far fewer risks, experts conclude in a new report.
Researchers show that toning down the activity of the receptor TREM2 may help put a stop to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease.
Highlighting a potential target in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer’s disease, new research suggests that triggering a protein found on the surface of brain cells may help slow the progression of these and other neurological diseases.
Brain banks enable crucial advances in neurodegenerative disease research, but dwindling public support around the world now threatens to cripple these institutions. Alzforum reports on the challenges and achievements of brain banks in a three-part series.
Scientists are developing PET tracers to detect neurofibrillary tangles in the brain, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. Alzforum reviews the state of the research.
An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has identified the microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) gene as increasing the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The MAPT gene encodes the tau protein, which is involved with a number of neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and AD. These findings provide novel insight into Alzheimer’s neurodegeneration, possibly opening the door for improved clinical diagnosis and treatment.
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have for the first time discovered a killing mechanism that could underpin a range of the most intractable neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS.
Researchers have reversed some of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in mice using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging-guided focused ultrasound.
Nova Southeastern University (NSU) researchers recently discovered that, contrary to prior belief, tissues of different mammalian organs have very different abilities to repair damage to their DNA.
Care2Caregivers provides a peer-support lifeline to people caring for loved ones with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Hot on the heels of discovering a protective form of immune response to spinal cord injury, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have pinpointed the biological trigger for that response – a vital step toward being able to harness the body’s defenses to improve treatment for spine injuries, brain trauma, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.
A compound found in common foods such as red grapes and peanuts may help prevent age-related decline in memory, according to new research published by a faculty member in the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found diverse genomic changes in single neurons from the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, pointing to an unexpected factor that may underpin the most common form of the disease.
Lewy Body Dementia Association offers support to the family, friends and fans of Stan Mikita.
Former National Football League (NFL) players who participated in tackle football before the age of 12 were more likely to have memory and thinking problems in adulthood, according to a new study published in the January 28, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
In a pair of related studies, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have shown their drug candidates can target biological pathways involved in the destruction of brain cells in Parkinson's disease.
Inflammation has long been studied in Alzheimer’s, but in a counterintuitive finding reported in a new paper, University of Florida researchers have uncovered the mechanism by which anti-inflammatory processes may trigger the disease.
Lewy body dementia: often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease.
Depression and other behavior changes may show up in people who will later develop Alzheimer’s disease even before they start having memory problems, according to a new study published in the January 14, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Depression and behavioral changes may occur before memory declines in people who will go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Case Western Reserve and University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center researchers and physicians have discovered that the molecule known as coenzyme A plays a key role in cell metabolism by regulating the actions of nitric oxide. Their findings appeared in the Dec. 15 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
One of the most promising new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease may already be in your kitchen. Curcumin, a natural product found in the spice turmeric, has been used by many Asian cultures for centuries, and a new study indicates a close chemical analog of curcumin has properties that may make it useful as a treatment for the brain disease.
A man-made form of insulin delivered by nasal spray may improve working memory and other mental capabilities in adults with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease dementia, according to a pilot study led by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found out how a protein crucial to learning works: by removing a biochemical “clamp” that prevents connections between nerve cells in the brain from growing stronger. The finding moves neuroscientists a step closer to figuring out how learning and memory work, and how problems with them can arise.
Exercise may help people with Parkinson’s disease improve their balance, ability to move around and quality of life, even if it does not reduce their risk of falling, according to a new study published in the December 31, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Already known to cut proteins, the enzyme SPPL3 turns out to have additional talents, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins. In its newly discovered role, SPPL3 works without cutting proteins to activate T cells, the immune system’s foot soldiers. Because its structure is similar to that of presenilin enzymes, which have been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers believe their findings could shed more light on presenilin functions, in addition to providing new insight into how the immune system is controlled.
The term Alzheimer's is frequently used to describe all dementias even though there are many different causes for dementia. Lewy body dementia affects 1.4 million American and is frequently misdiagnosed.
Collaborating scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and the University of California San Diego have developed a powerful new system for studying how proteins and other biological molecules form and lose their natural folded structures.
Computerized brain games that are advertised as a way to help boost intelligence and prevent dementia will be popular Christmas gifts this year. But there’s little scientific evidence to support these industry claims.
For up to one in five Americans over age 65, getting older brings memory and thinking problems. It may seem like part of getting older - but officially, it’s called mild cognitive impairment or MCI. A new definitive look at the evidence about what works and what doesn’t in MCI should help doctors and the seniors they treat.
UAB is the first in the nation to offer a clinical Alzheimer's risk assessment for patients worried about their potential for dementia as they age. More importantly, the assessment offers ways to manage and reduce risk.
People who have sleep apnea or spend less time in deep sleep may be more likely to have changes in the brain that are associated with dementia, according to a new study published in the December 10, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The even more surprising answer was that rescuing the Golgi reduced Aβ accumulation significantly, apparently by re-opening a normal protein degradation pathway for the amyloid precursor protein (APP).
The search for a living laboratory model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD)—the so-called “Alzheimer’s in a dish”—has a new candidate. Håkan Toresson and colleagues at Lund University in Sweden report success in creating induced neurons that model Alzheimer’s by starting with fibroblasts taken from skin biopsies.
Drugs that boost the function of a specific type of neurotransmitter receptor may provide benefit to patients with the second most common type of dementia, according to research from UAB published today in the Journal of Neuroscience.
People diagnosed with diabetes in midlife are more likely to experience significant memory and cognitive problems during the next 20 years than those with healthy blood sugar levels, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.
The majority of people with dementia have never seen a doctor about their memory and thinking problems, according to a new study published in the November 26, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right