Feature Channels: Alzheimer's and Dementia

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Leading neuroscientists have clarified the role of a controversial immune system protein in Alzheimer’s disease, showing it has opposing effects in early and late stages of the disease. Their discovery unites previous studies that left researchers conflicted and showed the protein both exacerbates and ameliorates disease symptoms. The updated model of disease progression, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, also highlights the need to align certain therapies with disease stages when treating the 1 in 9 Americans over 65 living with Alzheimer’s.

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Photo Gallery: Magnet the Weight of 30 Elephants Lowered Through Roof of USC Stevens Hall for Next-Gen 7T MRI Machine

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PHOENIX – Mayo Clinic researchers have found that engaging in mentally stimulating activities, even late in life, may protect against new-onset mild cognitive impairment, which is the intermediate stage between normal cognitive aging and dementia. The study found that cognitively normal people 70 or older who engaged in computer use, craft activities, social activities and playing games had a decreased risk of developing mild cognitive impairment. The results are published in the Jan. 30 edition of JAMA Neurology.

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In some people, the brain protein tau collects into toxic tangles that damage brain cells and contribute to diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a drug that can lower tau levels and prevent some neurological damage.

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A clinical trial to examine the effect of nilotinib on clinical outcomes and biomarkers in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease has opened at Georgetown University Medical Center.

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Xinglong Wang’s team published a study in the January 2017 issue of Molecular Therapy that is seen as confirming the relevance of this neurotoxic pathway, according to an accompanying editorial by Eloise Hudry, PhD, of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Unit at Harvard Medical School. This paper also confirms TDP-43 inhibition as a viable therapeutic option for the treatment of neurologic disorders, including Alzheimer disease.

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Promising, early studies of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease have paved a path for future clinical trials, but there are unique ethical challenges with this vulnerable population regarding decision making and post-study treatment access that need to be addressed as they ramp up, Penn Medicine researchers argue in a new review in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

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Older adults who suffer from arthritis need to keep moving to be functionally independent. But in an examination of a goal that is daunting for most of this aging population, a new Northwestern Medicine study found that performing even a third of the recommended activity is beneficial.

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Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have linked excess tau protein in the brain to the spatial disorientation that leads to wandering in many Alzheimer's disease patients. The findings, in mice, could lead to early diagnostic tests for Alzheimer's and point to treatments for this common and troubling symptom.

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Research in mice points to better understanding of how the structure of nerve cells in the adult hippocampus may deteriorate, which can lead to Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders.

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When hospitalised, people can become acutely confused and disorientated. This condition, known as delirium, affects a quarter of older patients and new research by UCL and the University of Cambridge shows it may have long-lasting consequences, including accelerating the dementia process.

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A synthesized steroid mirroring one naturally made by the dogfish shark prevents the buildup of a lethal protein implicated in some neurodegenerative diseases, reports an international research team studying an animal model of Parkinson’s disease. The clustering of this protein, alpha-synuclein (α-synuclein), is the hallmark of Parkinson’s and dementia with Lewy bodies, suggesting a new potential compound for therapeutic research.

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Scientists at the University of Luxembourg have identified a gene that may provide a new starting point for developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

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Sedentary older adults with no genetic risk factors for dementia may be just as likely to develop the disease as those who are genetically predisposed, according to a major study which followed more than 1,600 Canadians over five years.

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Patients who had a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease with dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies and had higher levels of Alzheimer’s disease pathology in their donated post-mortem brains also had more severe symptoms of these Lewy body diseases during their lives, compared to those whose brains had less AD pathology

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The first study of its kind designed to test the effects of a diet on the decline of cognitive abilities among a large group of individuals 65 to 84 years who currently do not have cognitive impairment will begin in January.

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Vanderbilt University scientists have received notification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that testing in humans may proceed for an investigational new drug after more than 10 years of research by scientists at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

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/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) is pleased to announce a new collaboration with MPI Cognition, founded by Dale Bredesen, MD, to train clinicians in the treatment of mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer's disease. The program is titled Reversing Cognitive Decline: Advanced Clinical Training in Treating MCI and Early Alzheimer's Disease, and the first offering will be March 11-12, 2017, in Huntington Beach, CA.

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Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have detailed the structure of a molecule that has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Knowing the shape of the molecule — and how that shape may be disrupted by certain genetic mutations — can help in understanding how Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases develop and how to prevent and treat them.

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Tests that measure the sense of smell may soon become common in neurologists’ offices. Scientists have been finding increasing evidence that the sense of smell declines sharply in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, and now a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania published today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease confirms that administering a simple “sniff test” can enhance the accuracy of diagnosing this dreaded disease

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Ron Davis, chair of the Department of Neuroscience on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has been awarded a $5 million Outstanding Investigator Grant, one of the first of its kind, by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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The holidays are supposed to be a time of joy and celebration, but we all know they can be stressful even under the best of circumstances. Add to the mix a relative with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) or dementia, and caregivers and family members can quickly become overwhelmed.

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An international team led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has selected a third investigational drug to be tested in a worldwide clinical trial – already underway – aimed at finding treatments to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

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Iowa State University researchers say higher levels of the enzyme, autotaxin, significantly predict memory impairment and Type 2 diabetes. The research published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease emphasizes the link between physical and mental health.

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An expert at Rutgers University’s Care2Caregivers helpline shares tips on how families can celebrate the holidays with loved ones suffering from an illness that affects memory

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• Risks of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are higher in older kidney transplant recipients than in older adults in the general population. • Among kidney transplant recipients, those who developed dementia or Alzheimer’s disease had higher rates of organ loss and patient death than those who did not develop these conditions.

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People who have protein in their urine, which is a sign of kidney problems, may also be more likely to later develop problems with thinking and memory skills or even dementia, according to a meta-analysis published in the December 14, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have discovered a molecular cause of hydrocephalus, a common, potentially life-threatening birth defect in which the head is enlarged due to excess fluid surrounding the brain. Because the same molecule is also implicated in Down’s syndrome, the finding, published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, may explain the ten-fold increased risk of hydrocephalus in infants born with Down’s.

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Electrocranial stimulation offers hope for Alzheimer's patients

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Commenting on a Financial Times feature on drug trials of the "plaque" theory of Alzheimer's---all of which have failed so far---Chris Norwood, in a lead letter, underscores that targeted diabetes prevention is really the major documented path to Alzheimer's prevention

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According to renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks, “music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion, but the power of music goes much further.” To hear and experience music’s potential, members of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus and local community are invited to a multimedia concert and lecture focused on the links between music and health, sponsored by the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) and the Department of the Arts. The event will be held on Dec. 8, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) Concert Hall.

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Measuring the brain activity of healthy, older adults while they walk and talk at the same time may help predict their risk of falls later, according to a study published in the December 7, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have made an important discovery toward the development of drugs to treat age-related memory loss in diseases like Alzheimer’s.

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Jagdish Singh, chair and professor of pharmaceutical sciences at North Dakota State University, is receiving a $1.89 million grant award for his research to develop a nanotechnology-based system that effectively delivers Nerve Growth Factor across the blood brain barrier to treat Alzheimer's disease.

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More than 15 million family members and other unpaid caregivers provide care to persons living with dementia in the United States. Yet the current healthcare environment and reimbursement models emphasize obligations toward individual patients, preventing clinicians from reaching out to these caregivers to assess their needs and provide care.

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Eli Lilly’s Phase III drug trial attempting to slow the advancement of Alzheimer’s disease disappointed many when it recently was announced that the study did not meet its primary endpoints.

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Mayo Clinic Monthly News Tips — November 2016

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December 1, 2016 — (BRONX, NY) —The National Institutes of Health has awarded researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Pennsylvania State University a five-year, $12.2 million grant to continue studies on the aging brain, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. More than five million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease—a number that is expected to double by 2040 as baby boomers age.

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For the first time, researchers have found higher levels of Gram-negative bacteria antigens in brain samples from late-onset Alzheimer’s disease patients. Compared to controls, patients with Alzheimer's had much higher levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and E coli K99 pili protein. In addition, The UC Davis team also found LPS molecules congregated with amyloid plaques, which have been linked to Alzheimer’s pathology and progression. The research was published today in the print edition of the journal Neurology.

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Walking is a milestone in development for toddlers, but it’s actually only one part of the complex cognitive task known as gait that includes everything from a person’s stride length to the accompanying swing of each arm. A Mayo Clinic study recently published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that problems associated with gait can predict a significant decline in memory and thinking.

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A defect in a gene that produces dopamine in the brain appears to accelerate the onset of Parkinson’s disease, according to new research from Iowa State University. The effect is particularly dramatic for young-to-middle-age adults.

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Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) has announced that Huaxi Xu, Ph.D., has been named the Jeanne and Gary Herberger Leadership Chair in Neuroscience at the institute.

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Nucleation processes are a first step in the structural rearrangement involved in the phase transition of matter: a liquid morphing into a gas, a gas becoming a liquid and so on. Understanding this process is critical for preventing, halting or treating cases of nucleation processes gone wrong -- such as in human disease. Now, a team of researchers have made headway toward understanding this problem from a molecular point of view in a new study, which they discuss in this week’s The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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Dealing with Alzheimer’s disease can be difficult any time of year, but the holidays present unique challenges for patients and their families.

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A team of neuroscience and biochemistry researchers at Stony Brook University have made a novel discovery that illustrates for the first time the difference between amyloid buildup in brain blood vessels and amyloid buildup around brain neurons.

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In a hopeful sign for the health of the nation’s brains, the percentage of American seniors with dementia is dropping, a new study finds. The downward trend has emerged despite something else the study shows: a rising tide of three factors that are thought to raise dementia risk by interfering with brain blood flow, namely diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

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New Northwestern Medicine research on the brains of individuals 90 years and older who had superior memories until their deaths revealed widespread and dense Alzheimer’s plaques and tangles in some cases, considered full-blown Alzheimer’s pathology.

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A new animal model developed at Penn Medicine using tau tangles isolated from the brains of Alzheimer’s patients rather than synthetic tau tangles paints a closer picture of the tau pathology in the AD brain