The health research funding organizations of Quebec (the Fonds de la recherche en sante du Quebec, FRSQ), France (the Institut national de la sante et de la recherche medicale, Inserm) and Canada (the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction, and Institute of Aging) today signed a co-operation agreement on [...]
While doing Alzheimer’s disease treatment research scientists at Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario have found clear evidence that increases in the size of the brain ventricles are directly associated with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Ventricles are fluid-filled cavities in the brain. The research, led by Robarts scientist Robert Bartha, shows [...]
The University of Kansas has received a $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct research on drugs that may help finding Alzheimer’s disease treatment. The four-year grant was awarded to Mary Michaelis, professor of pharmacology and toxicology. “We’ve already identified two very promising drugs,” Michaelis said. “The two drugs protect neurons [...]
An old hay fever drug Dimebon is found to significantly improve Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. Dimebon is a drug initially designed as an antihistamine for hayfever treatment. The drug was licensed in Russia, but it was later taken off the market, because there were newer and better working drugs licensed. Researchers examined 183 patients with mild [...]
Mild Alzheimer’s disease patients with higher physical fitness had larger brains compared to mild Alzheimer’s patients with lower physical fitness, according to the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. For the study, 121 people age 60 and older underwent fitness tests using a treadmill as well as brain scans to measure the white [...]
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have shown that mutations in two proteins associated with familial Alzheimer’s disease disrupt the flow of calcium ions within neurons. The two proteins, called PS1 and PS2 (presenilin 1 and 2), interact with a calcium release channel in an intracellular cell compartment. “The ‘calcium dysregulation’ hypothesis [...]
More than a century has passed since Alois Alzheimer first identified abnormal plaques and tangles in the brain of a woman with dementia. Though much has been learned since then, treatments for Alzheimer’s disease remain largely ineffective and diagnostics inadequate. New work from a collaboration led by HMS professor Dennis Selkoe and his lab, however, [...]
The editors of Neurotherapeutics are pleased and proud to announce their July issue, devoted to “Novel Therapeutics for Alzheimer’s Disease.” Neurotherapeutics (www.neurotherapeutics.org/) is the journal of the American Society of Experimental NeuroTherapeutics (ASENT) www.asent.org. The issue coincides with the 2008 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease (ICAD), being held at McCormick Place, Chicago, July [...]
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified two new techniques to detect the progression of Alzheimer’s disease earlier. By catching Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms are apparent, physicians can prescribe treatments to slow down the disease progression. In one study, researchers identified abnormal structural changes in the brains of seemingly normal elderly [...]
MRI and advanced computer analysis bring us closer to early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. For the first time, scientists have captured images of brain lesions similar to those found in Alzheimer’s disease using clinical-grade MRI in an animal model of the disease, according to research reported today at the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2008 International Conference on [...]
