Alzheimer’s

Living near major roads linked to increased risk of dementia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and MS

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Living near major roads or highways is linked to higher incidence of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis (MS), suggests new research published this week in the journal Environmental Health. Researchers from the University of British Columbia analyzed data for 678,000 adults in Metro Vancouver. They found that living less than 50 metres from … Read more

A new role for neurogenesis

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The ability to create new neurons may exist as built-in protection for sensitive brain areas, according to research in mice recently published in JNeurosci. For a quarter of a century, scientists have known that the brain creates new neurons even into adulthood – a process called adult neurogenesis. The question has been: why? Adult neurogenesis occurs … Read more

Sleep deprived? Study finds losing a night of sleep may increase Alzheimer’s biomarker

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A preliminary study has found that when young, healthy men were deprived of just one night of sleep, they had higher levels of tau, a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease, in their blood than when they had a full, uninterrupted night of rest. The study is published in the January 8, 2020, online issue of Neurology®, the … Read more

Focused ultrasound may open door to Alzheimer’s treatment

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Focused ultrasound is a safe and effective way to target and open areas of the blood-brain barrier, potentially allowing for new treatment approaches to Alzheimer’s disease, according to initial study results presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). There currently is no effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, the most … Read more

How Alzheimer’s disease spreads through the brain

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Tau can quickly spread between neurons but is not immediately harmful, according to research in mouse neurons published in JNeurosci. Intervening during the initial accumulation of tau could potentially halt the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. A hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease is the accumulation of tau protein in neurons, which leads to their death. A diseased version … Read more

In Alzheimer’s research, MIT scientists reveal brain rhythm role

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In the years since her lab discovered that exposing Alzheimer’s disease model mice to light flickering at the frequency of a key brain rhythm could stem the disorder’s pathology, MIT neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai and her team at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have been working to understand what the phenomenon may mean both … Read more

Drug target for Alzheimer’s disease has dual action

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UQ researchers have discovered a potential drug target for Alzheimer’s disease — an enzyme which has effects on both the immune and nervous systems. Dr Ramón Martínez-Mármol and Professor Frédéric A. Meunier from the Queensland Brain Institute Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research found that targeting one enzyme could combat the disease on two … Read more

Brain finds order amidst chaos

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Neurons communicate with each other by sending out rapid pulses of electrical signals called spikes. At first glance, the generation of these spikes can be very reliable: when an isolated neuron is repeatedly given exactly the same electrical input, we find the same pattern of spikes. Why, then, does the activity of cortical neurons in … Read more

Blood test is 94% accurate at identifying early Alzheimer’s disease

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Up to two decades before people develop the characteristic memory loss and confusion of Alzheimer’s disease, damaging clumps of protein start to build up in their brains. Now, a blood test to detect such early brain changes has moved one step closer to clinical use. Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis … Read more