In the U.S., older people with dementia are usually told they have Alzheimer’s disease. But a range of other brain diseases can also impair thinking and memory and judgment, according to scientists attending a summit on dementias held Thursday and Friday at the National Institutes of Health. These include strokes, a form of Parkinson’s disease and a disease that damages brain...
Category: <span>Alzheimer’s</span>
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Women should not be alarmed by study linking HRT to Alzheimer’s disease
Doctors are encouraging women not to be alarmed by a new study linking the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with a slightly increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The Royal College of GPs says the research does not prove that HRT causes Alzheimer’s disease and that women who are using the therapy should continue to do so. The study, which was recently published in...
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Data sharing uncovers five new risk genes for Alzheimer’s disease
Analysis of genetic data from more than 94,000 individuals has revealed five new risk genes for Alzheimer’s disease, and confirmed 20 known others. An international team of researchers also reports for the first time that mutations in genes specific to tau, a hallmark protein of Alzheimer’s disease, may play an earlier role in the development...
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Biggest ever map of human Alzheimer’s brain published
A study of the differences between healthy brains and those with Alzheimer’s Disease has produced largest dataset of its type ever. And the data, developed by a team of researchers led by Dr. Richard Unwin at The University of Manchester, is now freely available online for any scientist to use. The team included researchers from...
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New cell model of most common form of Alzheimer’s points to molecular causes, drug target
Harvard Medical School geneticists have created a new model-in-a-dish of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for more than 90 percent of Alzheimer’s cases and tends to strike people without a family history of the disease. Alzheimer’s disease. Credit: public domain The model marks the first time researchers have identified the same molecular abnormalities across multiple...
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Alzheimer’s: What leads to brain cell damage?
Scientists have uncovered a mechanism through which a toxic brain protein that is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease can damage neurons, or brain cells. illustration of brain disintegrating New research uncovers the mechanism that leads to the progressive loss of brain cells that characterizes Alzheimer’s disease. The team at the Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences in...
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Alzheimer’s disease: It may be possible to restore memory function, preclinical study finds
Research published today in the journal Brain reveals a new approach to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that may eventually make it possible to reverse memory loss, a hallmark of the disease in its late stages. Yan and her team used an epigenetic approach to restore memory function in an animal model of Alzheimer’s Disease Credit: Douglas...
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Bacterial pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease: Study
Cortexyme, Inc., a privately held, clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing therapeutics to alter the course of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other degenerative disorders, today announced publication of a foundational paper supporting its approach in Science Advances. In the paper, an international team of researchers led by Cortexyme co-founders Stephen Dominy, M.D. and Casey Lynch detail the...
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Researchers answer decades-old question about protein found in Alzheimer’s brain plaques
Alzheimer’s-affected brains are riddled with so-called amyloid plaques: protein aggregates consisting mainly of amyloid-β. However, this amyloid-β is a fragment produced from a precursor protein whose normal function has remained enigmatic for decades. A team of scientists at VIB and KU Leuven led by professors Joris de Wit and Bart De Strooper has now uncovered that this amyloid precursor protein modulates neuronal signal...
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Cognitive impairment risk increased in hypertensive patients with progressive cerebral small vessel disease
Patients with high blood pressure and progression of periventricular white matter hyper intensities showed signs of cognitive impairment despite taking medication to lower their blood pressure, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Hypertension. High blood pressure has been linked to an increased risk for dementia, but what’s unclear is what kinds...