Alzheimer’s disease and related diseases can still only be confirmed in deceased patients’ brains via autopsy. Even so, the development of biomarkers can give patients and their families answers during life: Alzheimer’s disease can be accurately detected via peptides and proteins in a patient’s cerebrospinal fluids (CSF), which can be collected through a lumbar puncture...
by Paul Govern, Vanderbilt University Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A research team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center reports in Neurology that greater stiffening of the aorta, the main artery in the human body, is associated in older adults with increased Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology as reflected in a range of neurochemical indicators measured in cerebrospinal fluid. “These results have major...
MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL BOSTON – New research in humans and mice identifies a particular signaling molecule that can help modify inflammation and the immune system to protect against Alzheimer’s disease. The work, which was led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), is published in Nature. Cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease develops when neurons begin to die....
by University of Queensland Credit: University of Queensland Ultrasound can overcome some of the detrimental effects of aging and dementia without the need to cross the blood-brain barrier, researchers at The University of Queensland have found. Professor Jürgen Götz from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) led a multidisciplinary team who showed low-intensity ultrasound effectively restored cognition without opening the barrier...
by Brigham and Women’s Hospital Credit: CC0 Public Domain As people go about their daily activities, complex fluctuations in their movement occur without conscious thought. These fluctuations—known as fractal motor activity regulation (FMAR)—and their changes are not readily detectable to the naked eye, but FMAR patterns can be recorded using a wristwatch-like device known as an...
by University of Queensland Credit: University of Queensland Ultrasound can overcome some of the detrimental effects of aging and dementia without the need to cross the blood-brain barrier, researchers at The University of Queensland have found. Professor Jürgen Götz from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) led a multidisciplinary team who showed low-intensity ultrasound effectively restored cognition without opening the barrier...
by Case Western Reserve University Prions. Credit: Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University researchers studying prions—misfolded proteins that cause lethal incurable diseases—have identified for the first time surface features of human prions responsible for their replication in the brain. The ultimate goal of the research is to help design a strategy to stop prion disease in humans—and, ultimately, to translate...
by NYU Langone Health Diagram of the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s Disease. Credit: Wikipedia/public domain. A new therapy prompts immune defense cells to swallow misshapen proteins, amyloid-beta plaques, and tau tangles, whose buildup is known to kill nearby brain cells as part of Alzheimer’s disease, a new study shows. Led by researchers at NYU...
by Michael E. Newman, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Photomicrograph showing amyloid beta-protein (brown from staining) in tissue taken from a human brain. Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have shown that the glymphatic system — the vascular network that removes waste from the central nervous system — helps clear amyloid beta from the brain and that...
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON IMAGE: GRAPHICAL DEPICTION. CREDIT: DIEGO GOMEZ-NICOLA / CELL REPORTS A new study has pinpointed a small group of cells in the brain which could be crucial to understanding how Alzheimer’s disease begins and how to slow its progression. This discovery could help research into treatment for the disease by focusing on this key group of...
