A team of seven University of Maryland A. James Clark School of Engineering undergraduates earned the top prize in this year’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) challenge for their efforts to develop low-cost tools to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease before patients show symptoms. “This represents a monumental achievement, not simply...
Tag: <span>Alzheimer’s disease</span>
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Could Olfactory Loss Point to Alzheimer’s Disease?
Odor identification tests may help scientists track the evolution of the disease in persons at risk By the time you start losing your memory, it`s almost too late. That`s because the damage to your brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may already have been going on for as long as twenty years. Which is why...
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Memories could be RE-AWOKEN in Alzheimer’s sufferers: Scientists reactivate brains of dementia-plagued mice with lasers – paving the way to a human cure
Lost memories in Alzheimer’s patients could be brought back with lasers Research team at Columbia University claims memories are not lost but difficult to access Looked at two groups of mice, one with dementia-like disease, one without Studied their brain when they were given memory tests and found the memories are recalled incorrectly Also found...
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Research identifies new brain death pathway in Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease tragically ravages the brains, memories and ultimately, personalities of its victims. Now affecting 5 million Americans, Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., and a cure for Alzheimer’s remains elusive, as the exact biological events that trigger it are still unknown. In a new study published today, Arizona...
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Steering an enzyme’s ‘scissors’ shows potential for stopping Alzheimer’s disease
The old real estate adage about “location, location, location” might also apply to the biochemical genesis of Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research from the University of British Columbia. Scientists had previously identified a couple of crucial steps in the formation of a protein called amyloid beta, which accumulates in clumps, or “plaques,” in the brains of...
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Study identifies source of cell-specific change in Alzheimer’s disease
Researchers led by Arizona State University (ASU) and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have identified altered expression of a gene called ANK1, which only recently has been associated with memory robbing Alzheimer’s disease, in specific cells in the brain. Using an extremely precise method of isolating cells called “laser capture microdissection,” researchers looked at three specific cell...
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Human enzyme may be key to unraveling Alzheimer’s disease
Protein aggregates are the hallmark of a number of neurodegenerative diseases. New research, published in the journal PLOS Biology, examines a human enzyme that unravels these disruptive plaques. Neurodegenerative diseases already affect millions of people in the United States. They tend to strike in middle to later life, and, because the population is starting to live...
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Anti-epilepsy drug restores normal brain activity in mild Alzheimer’s disease
In the last decade, mounting evidence has linked seizure-like activity in the brain to some of the cognitive decline seen in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Patients with Alzheimer’s disease have an increased risk of epilepsy and nearly half may experience subclinical epileptic activity—disrupted electrical activity in the brain that doesn’t result in a seizure but...
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Computer-designed antibodies target toxins associated with Alzheimer’s disease
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have designed antibodies that target the protein deposits in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease, and stop their production. The researchers used computer-based methods to develop antibodies—the star players of the body’s natural defence system—to target the deposits of misfolded proteins which are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. Early...
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Gene variant protecting against Alzheimer’s disease decreases plasma beta-amyloid levels
New research from the University of Eastern Finland shows that the APP gene variant protecting against Alzheimer’s disease significantly decreases plasma beta-amyloid levels in a population cohort. This is a very significant discovery, as many on-going drug trials in the field of Alzheimer’s disease focus on decreasing beta-amyloid levels in the brain tissue. According to...