Longevity science

The first experimental drug to boost brain synapses lost in Alzheimer’s disease has been developed by researchers at Sanford-Burnham.

 

The drug, called NitroMemantine, combines two FDA-approved medicines to stop the destructive cascade of changes in the brain that destroys the connections between neurons, leading to memory loss and cognitive decline.

 

 

Although no one is announcing a cure for Alzheimer’s disease just yet, research recently conducted at the University of Southern California does at least offer a glimmer of hope. Using drugs known as TSPO (translocator protein) ligands, scientists there have successfully halted and even reversed the effects of Alzheimer’s in mice.

 

The mice, all of which were male, had been genetically engineered to develop the disease. The drugs were tested on both 7-month-old young adult mice and 24-month-old elderly mice. Because the TSPO ligands increase production of steroid hormones, it was important that the animals’ existing testosterone levels be kept low before beginning the treatment. While this had already occurred naturally with the older mice as a result of aging, the younger ones had to be castrated in order to bring their levels down.

 

 

Most of us are able to let other people know that we’re stressed, simply by telling them. For people such as those suffering from Alzheimer’s, however, it can be difficult to express such a thought. That’s why UK scientists at Loughborough University and Imperial College London are developing a new test that can determine someone’s stress levels by analyzing their breath.

 

 

A way to stimulate the brain’s natural defense mechanisms in people with Alzheimer’s disease has been discovered by researchers at Université Laval, CHU de Québec and pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK): a molecule known as MPL (monophosphoryl lipid A) that stimulates the activity of the brain’s immune cells.

The breakthrough opens the door to developing a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and a vaccine to prevent the illness.

 

 

Scientists at VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland have developed new software called PredictAD that could significantly boost the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

 

The comparative software contrasts patient’s measurements with those of other patients kept in large databases, then visualizes the status of the patient with an index and graphics.

 

The support system and imaging methods were developed by VTT and Imperial College London.

 

The researchers used material compiled in the U.S. by the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative based on the records of 288 patients with memory problems. Nearly half of them, or 140 individuals, were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease on average 21 months after the initial measurements, which is about the same as the current European average of 20 months.

 

 

By turning off an immune system transmitter in mice with an Alzheimer’s-like condition, scientists have been able to greatly reduce the accumulation of an abnormal protein known as amyloid-ß in the animals’ brains.

 

Previous studies have shown that the protein plays a central role in Alzheimer’s disease. It is hoped that the research may ultimately point the way towards a method of preventing or treating the disease in humans.

 

 

Humans are living longer, but for many, longevity doesn’t equal quality of life. Increasingly, the final years are marked by a steady cognitive decline where memory and personality are swallowed in dementia. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is on the rise, and there is no treatment. Worse, researchers and drug companies wrestling with the disease seem to have hit a wall.

 

Most recently, Baxter announced its Alzheimer’s treatment, Gammagard, proved ineffective at its twin goals of reducing cognitive decline and preserving cognitive abilities in a 490-patient Phase III trial. Although the trial showed some positive results in participants genetically predisposed to the disease, Baxter will discontinue current immunoglobulin studies in Alzheimer’s.

 

 

Screening levels of vitamin E in the blood could help to improve the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease, according to new research that suggests the vitamin may also aid in protection.

The number of U.S. residents aged 65 and older living with Alzheimer's disease is expected to nearly triple to 13.8 million by 2050 as aging baby boomers swell the ranks of those living with the brain-wasting disease, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

 

 

New research in the FASEB Journal by NIH scientists suggests that a small molecule called TFP5 rescues plaques and tangles by blocking an overactive brain signal, thereby restoring memory in mice with Alzheimer’s — without obvious toxic side effects.

 

“We hope that clinical trial studies in AD patients yield an extended and a better quality of life, as observed in mice upon TFP5 treatment,” said Harish C. Pant, Ph.D., a senior researcher involved in the work from the Laboratory of Neurochemistry at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders at Stroke at the National Institutes of Health.

 

 

Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida have uncovered a toxic cellular process by which a protein that maintains the health of neurons becomes deficient and can lead to dementia.

The findings shed new light on the link between culprits implicated in two devastating neurological diseases: Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which afflicts physicist Stephen Hawking.

There is no cure for frontotemporal dementia, a disorder that affects personality, behavior and language and is second only to Alzheimer’s disease as the most common form of early-onset dementia.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have surgically implanted a pacemaker-like device into the brain of a patient in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, the first such operation in the United States.

 

The device, which provides deep brain stimulation and has been used in thousands of people with Parkinson’s disease, is seen as a possible means of boosting memory and reversing cognitive decline.

 

 

The latest data from a long-running study of hormone therapy suggests women who started taking hormone replacements within five years of menopause were 30 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than women who started years later.

 

 

As researchers look for better ways to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease in its early stages, one promising detection methodology to emerge is a simple eye tracking procedure developed by scientists at Lancaster University in conjunction with Royal Preston Hospital.

 

The results of such tests can help flag initial signs of memory impairment that are associated with the onset of the disease.