http://medicalxpress.com/alzheimer-dementia-news/ en-us PhysOrg Team Medical Xpress provides the latest research news on alzheimer's disease, dementia Researchers at USC have found that a class of pharmaceuticals can both prevent and treat Alzheimer's Disease in mice. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-drugs-alzheimer-disease-mice.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-21T14:17:42-07:00 Researchers have pinpointed a catalytic trigger for the onset of Alzheimer's disease – when the fundamental structure of a protein molecule changes to cause a chain reaction that leads to the death of neurons in the brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-scientists-molecular-trigger-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-20T15:00:01-07:00 A new study looking at sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and markers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and neuroimaging adds to the growing body of research linking the two. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-apnea-alzheimer-linked.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-19T14:00:05-07:00 The devastating effect of Alzheimer's disease on bilingual people has been thrown into focus in Canada, where the sudden loss of a second language can leave sufferers feeling like strangers in their own country. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-alzheimer-bilingual-victims-stranded-canada.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-19T11:10:01-07:00 (Medical Xpress)—Working with lab mice models of multiple sclerosis (MS), UC Davis scientists have detected a novel molecular target for the design of drugs that could be safer and more effective than current FDA-approved medications against MS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-approach-treatment-ms-conditions.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-17T16:54:30-07:00 (HealthDay)—Older individuals with nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) seem to have a significantly reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to a study published online May 15 in Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-nonmelanoma-skin-cancer-tied-alzheimer.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-16T16:20:02-07:00 People who have skin cancer may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, according to new research published in the May 15, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The link does not apply to melanoma, a less common but more aggressive type of skin cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-skin-cancer-linked-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-15T16:00:01-07:00 (Medical Xpress)—Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have helped identify many of the biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease that could potentially predict which patients will develop the disorder later in life. Now, studying spinal fluid samples and health data from 201 research participants at the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, the researchers have shown the markers are accurate predictors of Alzheimer's years before symptoms develop. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-alzheimer-markers-mental-decline.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-14T06:48:36-07:00 A drug developed by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, known as J147, reverses memory deficits and slows Alzheimer's disease in aged mice following short-term treatment. The findings, published May 14 in the journal Alzheimer's Research and Therapy, may pave the way to a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease in humans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-scientists-drug-alzheimer-mice.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-13T20:00:01-07:00 (HealthDay)—About 13 percent of Americans 60 and older say they have increasing problems with thinking and memory and that they suffer growing confusion, a new report released Thursday shows. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-seniors-mental-decline-silence-cdc.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-09T17:27:44-07:00 Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the accumulation of neurotoxic β-amyloid peptide (A-beta). ADAM10, a protein that resides in the neural synapses, has previously been shown to prevent the formation of A-beta. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-alzheimer-disease-synaptic-protein-adam10.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-08T13:08:41-07:00 Research from the Regenstrief Institute, the Indiana University Center for Aging Research and Wishard-Eskenazi Health on medications commonly taken by older adults has found that drugs with strong anticholinergic effects cause cognitive impairment when taken continuously for as few as 60 days. A similar impact can be seen with 90 days of continuous use when taking multiple drugs with weak anticholinergic effect. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-anticholinergics-days-memory-problems-older.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-07T10:52:22-07:00 Baxter International Inc. says that a blood product it was testing failed to slow mental decline or to preserve physical function in a major study of 390 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-baxter-drug-alzheimer-big.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-07T09:53:01-07:00 (Medical Xpress)—A new University of Arizona study, published in the journal Neurology, suggests a possible link between elevated blood sugar levels and risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-link-elevated-blood-sugar-alzheimer.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-06T08:17:32-07:00 They identified blood-based biological markers that are associated with the build up of a toxic protein in the brain which occurs years before symptoms appear and irreversible brain damage has occurred. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-scientists-closer-screening-early-alzheimer.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-01T08:22:40-07:00 Elderly patients who receive anesthesia are no more likely to develop long-term dementia or Alzheimer's disease than other seniors, according to new Mayo Clinic research. The study analyzed thousands of patients using the Rochester Epidemiology Project—which allows researchers access to medical records of nearly all residents of Olmsted County, Minn.—and found that receiving general anesthesia for procedures after age 45 is not a risk factor for developing dementia. The findings were published Wednesday, May 1, online in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-link-anesthesia-dementia-elderly.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-05-01T00:10:01-07:00 Case Western Reserve's Technology Transfer Office has granted an exclusive license of a novel Alzheimer's Disease (AD) treatment strategy to spinoff company ReXceptor Inc., which plans to initiate early-stage human clinical trials of the medication within the next few months. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-spinoff-rexceptor-alzheimer-treatment.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-25T13:02:13-07:00 Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered a potential strategy for developing treatments to stem the disease process in Alzheimer's disease. It's based on unclogging removal of toxic debris that accumulates in patients' brains, by blocking activity of a little-known regulator protein called CD33. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-alzheimer-gene-potential-treatment.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-25T12:00:12-07:00 Scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in collaboration with researchers from Icelandic Heart Association, Sage Bionetworks, and other institutions, have discovered that a network of genes involved in the inflammatory response in the brain is a crucial mechanism driving Late Onset Alzheimer's Disease (LOAD). The findings, published online today in the journal Cell, provide new understanding of key pathways and genes involved in LOAD and valuable insights to develop potential therapies for the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-key-mechanism-common-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-25T12:00:04-07:00 Due to its ageing population, the Netherlands is seeing an explosive growth in the number of dementia patients. This is expected to increase from 250,000 in 2013 to 500,000 in 2050. Cost cutting in the healthcare sector, together with a worsening shortage of care workers, means that solutions are needed if dementia sufferers are to be provided with good quality care. The University of Twente's eHealth Research Center is exploring the use of technological aids, like sensors, touch screens or games, to help such patients. PhD student Nienke Nijhof analysed the use of various tools in dementia sufferers. Ms Nijhof asserts that "Technology can offer patients safety and support. I attempted to determine whether the use of these tools might enable patients to live independently for longer. This could save the health service as much as 800 to 2800 euros per patient per month. I advocate the inclusion of technological aids in the health insurance package, to facilitate their large scale use." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-technology-dementia.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-23T09:46:24-07:00 The disrupted metabolism of sugar, fat and calcium is part of the process that causes the death of neurons in Alzheimer's disease. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now shown, for the first time, how important parts of the nerve cell that are involved in the cell's energy metabolism operate in the early stages of the disease. These somewhat surprising results shed new light on how neuronal metabolism relates to the development of the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-early-stage-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-22T15:00:13-07:00 Evidence indicates that the accumulation of amyloid-beta proteins, which form the plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, is critical for the development of Alzheimer's disease, which impacts 5.4 million Americans. And not just the quantity, but also the quality of amyloid-beta peptides is crucial for Alzheimer's initiation. The disease is triggered by an imbalance in two different amyloid species—in Alzheimer's patients, there is a reduction in a relative level of healthy amyloid-beta 40 compared to 42. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-brain-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-18T11:50:27-07:00 Close family members of people with Alzheimer's disease are more than twice as likely as those without a family history to develop silent buildup of brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers at Duke Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-family-history-alzheimer-abnormal-brain.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-17T17:00:01-07:00 (Medical Xpress)—A new study from researchers at the University of Florida may have uncovered a critical factor that drives the relentless progression of Alzheimer's disease ― a discovery that could eventually slow its progression. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-uncovers-key-factor-alzheimer.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-16T06:10:01-07:00 (HealthDay)—Regular exercise slows disability and prevents falls in patients with Alzheimer's disease without increasing overall costs, a new study from Finland says. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-people-alzheimer-nursing-homes.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-15T16:17:11-07:00 A new hypothesis has been developed by researchers in Bochum on how Alzheimer's disease could occur. They analysed the interaction of the proteins FE65 and BLM that regulate cell division. In the cell culture model, they discovered spherical structures in the nucleus that contained FE65 and BLM. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-alzheimer-protein-spheres-nucleus-wrong.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-11T15:00:28-07:00 The plaque deposits in the brain of Alzheimer's patients are surrounded by the brain's own immune cells, the microglia. This was already recognized by Alois Alzheimer more than one hundred years ago. But until today it still remains unclear what role microglia play in Alzheimer's disease. Do they help to break down the plaque deposit? A study by researchers of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin has now shed light on these mysterious microglia during the progression of Alzheimer's disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-brain-immune-cells-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-11T11:41:19-07:00 A new genetically engineered lab rat that has the full array of brain changes associated with Alzheimer's disease supports the idea that increases in a molecule called beta-amyloid in the brain causes the disease, according to a study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-next-generation-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-09T17:00:07-07:00 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 2013-04-04T12:32:42-07:00 Researchers from the Indiana University Center for Aging Research and the Regenstrief Institute are conducting the nation's first randomized controlled dementia screening trial to weigh the benefits and risks of routine screening for dementia. The results of the five-year trial will help policy-makers, individuals and families weigh the pros and cons of routine screening of adults age 65 and older. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-iu-regenstrief-nation-randomized-dementia.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia 2013-04-04T11:35:48-07:00