Neurodegenerative Diseases

The neuroscience of finding your lost keys: How the brain keeps track of similar but distinct memories

Ever find yourself racking your brain on a Monday morning to remember where you put your car keys? When you do find those keys, you can thank the hippocampus, a brain region responsible for storing and retrieving ...

Neuroscience created Mar 21, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers link Gulf War Illness to physical changes in brain fibers that process pain

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) have found what they say is evidence that veterans who suffer from "Gulf War Illness" have physical changes in their brains not seen in unaffected individuals. Brain ...

Neuroscience created Mar 20, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Lithium shows no benefit to MND patients

(Medical Xpress)—Results from a clinical trial into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), led by King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry show that lithium carbonate is ineffective at treating the ...

Neuroscience created Mar 19, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Two new genes linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and related disorders

(Medical Xpress)—A study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has discovered mutations in two genes that lead to the death of nerve cells in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, ...

Genetics created Mar 18, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Tau transmission model opens doors for new Alzheimer's, Parkinson's therapies

Injecting synthetic tau fibrils into animal models induces Alzheimer's-like tau tangles and imitates the spread of tau pathology, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania ...

Neuroscience created Mar 15, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New structural insight into neurodegenerative disease

A research team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) released their results on the structure and molecular details of the neurodegenerative disease-associated protein Ataxin-1. ...

Genetics created Mar 14, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

New drugs may improve quality of life for people with Parkinson's disease

Three studies released today present possible positive news for people with Parkinson's disease. The studies, which will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders created Mar 14, 2013 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Mutations in VCP gene implicated in a number of neurodegenerative diseases

New research, published in Neuron, gives insight into how single mutations in the VCP gene cause a range of neurological conditions including a form of dementia called Inclusion Body Myopathy, Paget's Disease of the Bone a ...

Neuroscience created Mar 14, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Scientists identify Buphenyl as a possible drug for Alzheimer's disease

(Medical Xpress)—Buphenyl, an FDA-approved medication for hyperammonemia, may protect memory and prevent the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Hyperammonemia is a life-threatening condition that can affect patients at ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia created Mar 11, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Research team breakthrough in delivering drugs to the brain

Researchers at UCL have made a breakthrough in the way that drugs could be delivered to the brain.

Medical research created Mar 11, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

International consortium builds 'Google Map' of human metabolism

Building on earlier pioneering work by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, an international consortium of university researchers has produced the most comprehensive virtual reconstruction ...

Medical research created Mar 03, 2013 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (5) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Scientists identify 'clean-up' snafu that kills brain cells in Parkinson's disease

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered how the most common genetic mutations in familial Parkinson's disease damage brain cells. The study, which published online today in ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders created Mar 03, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Proteins with mutations in 'prion-like' segments considered candidates for inherited forms of ALS

A multi-institution group of researchers has found new candidate disease proteins for neurodegenerative disorders. James Shorter, Ph.D., assistant professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Perelman ...

Medical research created Mar 03, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Misplaced molecules: New insights into the causes of dementia

A team of German and Belgian researchers has succeeded in gaining new insights into the causes of certain movement disorders and forms of dementia. Scientists including Bettina Schmid and Christian Haass from the German Center ...

Neuroscience created Mar 01, 2013 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Parkinson's disease: Parkin protects from neuronal cell death

Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich identify a novel signal transduction pathway, which activates the parkin gene and prevents stress-induced neuronal cell death.

Parkinson's & Movement disorders created Mar 01, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0


Neurodegeneration is the umbrella term for the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, including death of neurons. Many neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s occur as a result of neurodegenerative processes. As research progresses, many similarities appear which relate these diseases to one another on a sub-cellular level. Discovering these similarities offers hope for therapeutic advances that could ameliorate many diseases simultaneously. There are many parallels between different neurodegenerative disorders including atypical protein assemblies as well as induced cell death. Neurodegeneration can be found in many different levels of neuronal circuitry ranging from molecular to systemic.

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