Feature Channels: Alzheimer's and Dementia

• share
• favorite_border

Because amyloidosis doesn’t affect a specific organ and can be present throughout the body including the heart, kidneys, liver and brain, unraveling the underlying cause of amyloid fibril creation – a hallmark of this disease – is complex and challenging. A monumental $11.5 million gift from philanthropists Ann and John Wood will enable FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine to create a game-changing infrastructure using a whole-body approach and multi-disciplinary team.

• share
• favorite_border

Older people who have little social contact with others may be more likely to have loss of overall brain volume, and in areas of the brain affected by dementia, than people with more frequent social contact, according to a study published in the July 12, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

What makes the vital layer of protective cells around the brain and spinal cord — the blood-brain barrier — more or less permeable has been one of the more mystifying questions in neuroscience.

• share
• favorite_border

A simple but revolutionary test to improve early detection for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease could soon be helping patients and their families, thanks to a significant £1.5 million funding boost awarded to the universities of Bath and Bristol.

• share
• favorite_border

On July 6, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval to lecanemab, marketed as Leqembi, for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging has been working with this drug and others like it for more than a decade.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A $40.5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will fund the Asian Cohort for Alzheimer’s Disease (ACAD) study at Penn Medicine and 15 other academic research centers across the United States and Canada.

• share
• favorite_border

Age-related cognitive decline and the escalating prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease are pressing social challenges as the population of those 65 and older continues to expand. Age is the primary risk factor, but research has shown that social and structural determinants of health play significant roles in the higher incidence of Alzheimer’s among marginalized communities.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Hackensack Meridian Health Physicians react to FDA approval of Alzheimer's drug lecanemab/ Leqembi. Available to discuss its uses, side effects and instances when they have prescribed it.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Older people who have fluctuating levels of cholesterol and triglycerides may have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias compared to people who have steady levels, according to new research published in the July 5, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. While the study found a link, it does not prove that fluctuating levels of cholesterol and triglycerides cause dementia.

• share
• favorite_border

Taking good care of your teeth may be linked to better brain health, according to a study published in the July 5, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found that gum disease and tooth loss were linked to brain shrinkage in the hippocampus, which plays a role in memory and Alzheimer’s disease. The study does not prove that gum disease or tooth loss causes Alzheimer’s disease; it only shows an association.

• share
• favorite_border

Older adults with Alzheimer disease and related dementia who were admitted to an ICU were much less likely to be discharged home and faced almost twice the risk of dying soon after discharge and within the 12 months afterward.

• share
• favorite_border

Cedars-Sinai patient care teams are preparing to offer lecanemab, a new Alzheimer’s disease treatment expected to soon receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to patients in the coming months.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

The June 2023 issue of SLAS Discovery contains one review article, five full-length articles and two technical briefs covering spheroid models, 3D cell high-throughput screening (HTS) applications for treating Alzheimer’s and other drug discovery research.

• share
• favorite_border

Dogs who slow down physically also slow down mentally, according to a new study from North Carolina State University. Measuring gait speed in senior dogs could be a simple way to monitor their health and to document decline in their neurological function as they age.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

In a study that followed more than 2,000 community-dwelling older adults over eight years, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have significant new evidence of a link between decreased sense of smell and risk of developing late-life depression.

• share
• favorite_border

Alzheimer's disease (AD) mainly affects the older population. Recent research found early disease signs in cell culture models of early human brain development, raising the possibility that the disease has its origins much earlier in life, possibly during embryogenesis – the formation and development of an embryo.

• share
• favorite_border

In an eight-year study of more than 600 community-dwelling older adults, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have further linked levels of cell-free DNA (DNA fragments resulting from cell death) circulating in the blood to chronic inflammation and frailty.

• share
• favorite_border

Adults who live in walkable neighborhoods are more likely to socialize and have a stronger sense of community, report researchers at the UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at City of Hope have developed universal donor stem cells that could one day provide lifesaving therapy to children with lethal brain conditions, such as Canavan disease, as well as to people with other degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of California, Irvine has received a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to lead a multi-institutional study of specific brain cell vulnerabilities to abnormal tau protein deposits in regions affected in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Alzheimer’s disease causes changes to the brain that begin two decades or more before symptoms appear. A study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals that the bacteria that live in the gut also change before Alzheimer’s symptoms arise, a discovery that could lead to diagnostics or treatments for Alzheimer’s disease that target the gut microbiome.

• share
• favorite_border

The American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the world’s largest association of neurologists and neuroscience professionals, has submitted a Formal National Coverage Determination (NCD) Reconsideration Request to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the existing national coverage determination on Monoclonal Antibodies Directed Against Amyloid for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease, including the new therapy lecanemab.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from The University of Texas at El Paso’s School of Pharmacy will explore the viability of a new treatment for vascular dementia, thanks to a $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

• share
• favorite_border

Matthew Lew, an associate professor of electrical and systems engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has received a five-year $2 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support his ongoing work to improve microscopic imaging techniques.

• share
• favorite_border

A research consortium, including a Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine neuroscientist and his research coordinator, are calling for a consensus on how scientists identify and evaluate how infections contribute to or cause cognitive impairment and dementias, including Alzheimer’s disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Pitt unveils National Sports Brain Bank to track patients with contact-sports backgrounds; Steelers legends Jerome Bettis, Merril Hoge pledge brains and participation in innovative program.

• share
• favorite_border

The quality of care for nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias is best when they are in the majority, but most facilities also accommodate a heterogeneous population, where specialized staff training is limited, according to a study led by the University of California, Irvine.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A roundup of the latest medical discoveries and faculty news at Cedars-Sinai in May 2023.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

This study provides provides the first physiological evidence from inside the human brain supporting the dominant scientific theory on how the brain consolidates memory during sleep. Further, deep-brain stimulation during a critical time in the sleep cycle appeared to improve memory consolidation.