http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a new set of genetic markers for Alzheimer's that point to a second pathway through which the disease develops. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-genetic-markers-id-alzheimer-pathway.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:32:42 EST news284297477 According to a 2012 World Health Organization report, over 35 million people worldwide currently have dementia, a number that is expected to double by 2030 (66 million) and triple by 2050 (115 million). Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, has no cure and there are currently only a handful of approved treatments that slow, but do not prevent, the progression of symptoms. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-worming-treatments-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Thu, 07 Mar 2013 11:02:51 EST news281876562 Sports-related concussions and mild traumatic brain injuries have grabbed headlines in recent months, as the long-term damage they can cause becomes increasingly evident among both current and former athletes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that millions of these injuries occur each year. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-image-concussion-related-abnormal-brain-proteins.html Neuroscience Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:02:32 EST news278089189 Researchers from Inserm and the Université Lille/Université Lille Nord de France have recently used a neurodegeneration model of Alzheimer's disease to provide experimental evidence of the relationship between obesity and disorders linked to the tau protein. This research was conducted on mice and is published in the Diabetes Review. It corroborates the theory that metabolic anomalies contribute massively to the development of dementia. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-detrimental-effect-obesity-lesions-alzheimer.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:30:41 EST news276784231 An international team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the University of Bonn and the Center for Advanced European Studies and Research in Germany have shown that a well-known immune and inflammatory process plays an important role in the pathology of Alzheimer's disease. This process, which results in the mature production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine called interleukin-1 beta (IL-1B) and is involved in the body's defense against infection, has also been established as a clinical target for rheumatoid arthritis. The finding, published in Nature, points to the possibility that drugs that disrupt the production of IL-1B, such as those for rheumatoid arthritis, may also prove beneficial for patients with Alzheimer's. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-alzheimer-disease-inflammation-therapeutic-approach.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Wed, 19 Dec 2012 13:00:01 EST news275139892 The two infamous proteins, amyloid-beta (Aβ) and tau, that characterize advanced Alzheimer's disease (AD), start healthy neurons on the road to cell death long before the appearance of the deadly plaques and tangles by working together to reactivate the supposedly blocked cell cycle in brain cells, according to research presented on Dec. 17 at the American Society for Cell Biology's Annual Meeting in San Francisco. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-neurons-die-alzheimer-faulty-cell.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:00:10 EST news274961394 Growing evidence suggests that there may be a link between diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, but the physiological mechanisms by which diabetes impacts brain function and cognition are not fully understood. In a new study published in Aging Cell, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies show, for the first time, that diabetes enhances the development of aging features that may underlie early pathological events in Alzheimer's. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-diabetes-proteins-linked-alzheimer-features.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Fri, 26 Oct 2012 09:42:42 EST news270463247 Goldilocks was on to something when she preferred everything "just right." Harvard Medical School researchers have found that when it comes to the length of mitochondria, the power-producing organelles, applying the fairy tale's mantra is crucial to the health of a cell. More specifically, abnormalities in mitochondrial length promote the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-mitochondria-bigger.html Medical research Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:00:05 EST news264941658 During Alzheimer's disease, 'plaques' of amyloid beta (Ab) and tau protein 'tangles' develop in the brain, leading to the death of brain cells and disruption of chemical signaling between neurons. This leads to loss of memory, mood changes, and difficulties with reasoning. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, has found that up-regulating the gene Hes1 largely counteracted the effects of Ab on neurons, including preventing cell death, and on GABAergic signaling. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-blocking-effects-amyloid-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:00:02 EST news262878966 While clinical trial results are being released regarding drugs intended to decrease amyloid production - thought to contribute to decline in Alzheimer's disease - clinical trials of drugs targeting other disease proteins, such as tau, are in their initial phases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-anti-tau-drug-cognition-decreases-tau.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Thu, 19 Jul 2012 12:45:03 EST news261920677 Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified a novel group of proteins that accumulate in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. These findings, which appear online in the Journal of Neuroscience, may open up novel approaches to diagnose and stage the progression likelihood of the disease in Alzheimer patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-group-proteins-brains-alzheimer-patients.html Neuroscience Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:49:42 EST news258803352 Under normal circumstances, the tau protein is a hard-working participant in memory and normal brain functioning. But as is becoming increasingly evident, in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, tau not only ceases to play a productive role in brain health, but actually undergoes a Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation to become a misshapen villain that destroys brain cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-antibodies-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:00:15 EST news252239723 Repeated stress triggers the production and accumulation of insoluble tau protein aggregates inside the brain cells of mice, say researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine in a new study published in the March 26 Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-chronic-stress-spawns-protein-aggregates.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:00:11 EST news251981811 New research in humans published today reveals that the so-called FKBP52 protein may prevent the Tau protein from turning pathogenic. This may prove significant for the development of new Alzheimer's drugs and for detecting the disease before the onset of clinical symptoms. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-alzheimer-disease-role-fkbp52-protein.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:14:41 EST news251471644 One of the most distinctive signs of the development of Alzheimer's disease is a change in the behavior of a protein that neuroscientists call tau. In normal brains, tau is present in individual units essential to neuron health. In the cells of Alzheimer's brains, by contrast, tau proteins aggregate into twisted structures known as "neurofibrillary tangles." These tangles are considered a hallmark of the disease, but their precise role in Alzheimer's pathology has long been a point of contention among researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-untangling-mysteries-alzheimer.html Neuroscience Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:02:16 EST news247410108 For decades, researchers have debated whether Alzheimer's disease starts independently in vulnerable brain regions at different times, or if it begins in one region and then spreads to neuroanatomically connected areas. A new study by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers strongly supports the latter, demonstrating that abnormal tau protein, a key feature of the neurofibrillary tangles seen in the brains of those with Alzheimer's, propagates along linked brain circuits, "jumping" from neuron to neuron. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-alzheimer-disease-brain-region.html Neuroscience Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:00:10 EST news247336803 High levels of tau protein in fluid bathing the brain are linked to poor recovery after head trauma, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Fondazione IRCCS Ca Granda-Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico in Milan, Italy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-high-tau-protein-linked-poor.html Neuroscience Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:19:02 EST news243015531 (Medical Xpress) -- A vaccine that slows the progression of Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia has been developed by researchers at the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Research Institute (BMRI). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-alzheimer-vaccine-memory-mice.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Fri, 09 Dec 2011 07:40:02 EST news242637781 (Medical Xpress) -- One of the most promising markers of Alzheimer’s disease, previously thought only to be inside nerve cells, now appears to be normally released from nerve cells throughout life, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-alzheimer-protein-brain-fluid-healthy.html Neuroscience Wed, 21 Sep 2011 07:31:53 EST news235809074 An international research team, co-led by scientists at Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida, have discovered three potential susceptibility genes for development of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurodegenerative disease that causes symptoms similar to those of Parkinson's disease but is resistant to Parkinson's medications. Their report is being published online June 19 in Nature Genetics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-susceptibility-genes-neurodegenerative-disorder.html Genetics Sun, 19 Jun 2011 13:00:29 EST news227706753 Obesity is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, but weight loss due to bariatric surgery may reduce the risk of this common dementia, a new study suggests. The results will be presented Sunday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-weight-loss-gastric-bypass-surgery.html Medical research Mon, 06 Jun 2011 09:35:05 EST news226571685 Stress promotes neuropathological changes that are also seen in Alzheimer's disease. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich have discovered that the increased release of stress hormones in rats leads to generation of abnormally phosphorylated tau protein in the brain and ultimately, memory loss. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-stress-alzheimer-disease.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 26 May 2011 12:58:21 EST news225633476