Feature Channels: Alzheimer's and Dementia

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A study that assessed the brains of 99 World Trade Center (WTC) responders showed that WTC responders with cognitive impairment (CI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a different presentation of the white matter in their brains compared to responders with CI without PTSD.

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A new MIT study finds that Alzheimer’s disease disrupts at least one form of visual memory by degrading a newly identified circuit that connects the vision processing centers of each brain hemisphere.

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Linda J. Van Eldik, Ph.D., director of the University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, is part of a $1.5 million grant to help further research into a possible treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. A four-year grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health to Northwestern University includes a $611,676 subaward to UK. Van Eldik, the Dr. E. Vernon Smith and Eloise C. Smith Alzheimer's Research Endowed Chair, serves as principal investigator on UK’s award.

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Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have discovered that increasing the production of new neurons in mice with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) rescues the animals’ memory defects. The study, to be published August 19 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), shows that new neurons can incorporate into the neural circuits that store memories and restore their normal function, suggesting that boosting neuron production could be a viable strategy to treat AD patients.

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A new UCLA-led study has identified multiple new risk genes for Alzheimer’s disease and a rare, related brain disorder by using a combination of new testing methods allowing for mass screening of genetic variants in a single experiment. 

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In the recent popular Korean TV series “The Light in Your Eyes,” many viewers emphasized with the main character suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

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UC San Diego researchers received a $1.3 million grant from the Keck Foundation for a project that could help scientists better understand the role misfolded tau proteins play in causing neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, which may lead to more effective drug therapies.

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Scientists have demonstrated that the APOE4 gene variant, which increases risk for Alzheimer’s but decreases risk of glaucoma in humans, blocks a disease cascade that leads to the destruction of retinal ganglion cells in glaucoma. Additionally, they showed in mouse models that the death of retinal ganglion cells – the cause of vision loss in glaucoma – can be prevented by using medications to inhibit a molecule called Galectin-3, which is regulated by the APOE gene. These findings taken together emphasize the critical role of APOE in glaucoma and suggest that Galectin-3 inhibitors hold promise as a glaucoma treatment, according to the authors.

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The findings from the meeting were recently published in Molecular Neurodegeneration and raise opportunities for new treatments and cures for neurodegenerative diseases like glaucoma and Alzheimer’s.

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Leisure activities, such as reading a book, doing yoga and spending time with family and friends, may help lower the risk of dementia, according to a new meta-analysis published in the August 10, 2022, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Older adults with atrial cardiopathy (a major, often undetected cardiac cause of stroke) may be at increased risk of developing dementia, according to new research led by Johns Hopkins Medicine.

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Structural or functional abnormalities within the heart’s left atrium, with or without symptoms, may increase a person’s risk of developing dementia later in life by 35%, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

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Researchers at the University of New Hampshire will receive a five-year grant totaling $2.8 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop and test social assistive robots to aid in the care of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia in the comfort of their own homes.

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Rural Americans suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s are less likely than city dwellers to be seen by specialists and receive tests that can benefit both them and their families, new research has found.

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We all know that people have reported brain fog and other neurological issues after having COVID-19. But a new study shows some sobering news – COVID-19 infections may have serious long-term effects. Major findings include that COVID-19 infections may predispose individuals to developing irreversible neurological conditions that may increase the likelihood of strokes and the chance of developing persistent brain lesions that can lead to brain bleeding. The findings appear online in press in the journal Ageing Research Reviews.

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Why do some people with amyloid plaques in their brains associated with Alzheimer’s disease show no signs of the disease, while others with the same amount of plaque have clear memory and thinking problems? Researchers looked at genetic and life course factors that may help create a “cognitive reserve” that provides a buffer against the disease in a study published in the August 3, 2022, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Preeclampsia is a serious complication of pregnancy characterized by high blood pressure and kidney damage. Mayo Clinic researchers found that women with a history of severe preeclampsia have more markers linked to brain cell damage and inflammation, compared to women who had uncomplicated pregnancies.

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Timothy Huang, Ph.D., has been awarded $2.8 million by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to continue his work on Alzheimer’s disease. The four-year project will use human stem cells transplanted into mice to determine the role of specific Alzheimer’s-related gene mutations in the brain.

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A review of studies about the effect of SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—on the olfactory system introduces questions about whether loss of smell associated with COVID-19 infection may increase the risk of developing dementia later in life. The review is published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurophysiology (JNP).

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Beta-amyloid is far from the only factor in dementia, memory loss and Alzheimer's disease, and far from the only target for drugs, says the director of a top Alzheimer's center. Research on many molecules, and an emphasis on preventing or slowing the disease, are both crucial.

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Here are some of the latest articles that have been added to the Drug Resistance channel on Newswise, a free source for journalists.

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Two common viruses lie dormant in neurons – herpes simplex virus (HSV), and varicella zoster virus (VZV). Lab models of the human brain show that activation or re-infection of VZV can trigger neuroinflammation and wake up HSV, leading to accumulation of Alzheimer’s linked proteins and neural decline.

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JMIR Publications recently published "Using Twitter to Examine Stigma Against People With Dementia During COVID-19: Infodemiology Study" in JMIR Aging which reported that during the pandemic, there has been significant social media attention focused on the increased COVID-19 risks and impacts for people with dementia and their care partners.

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Today (July 25), UK HealthCare and community leaders celebrated the full opening of the Sanders-Brown Memory Clinic at Turfland. The new, larger clinic replaces the former Sanders-Brown facilities along North Broadway in Lexington. The world looks to The University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging for answers to the mysteries of dementia, and the elderly rely on them for help in charting their path to a healthy and vigorous senior lifestyle. After outgrowing their old space, leaders at UK decided it was time that Sanders-Brown’s home for clinical research and patient care reflects their reputation — building them a new home on UK HealthCare’s Turfland Campus.

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RUSH researchers found that a bioactive compound found in strawberries called pelargonidin may be associated with less neurofibrillary tau tangles in the brain.

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The National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded Ochsner Health a $700,000 grant to study the effectiveness of its collaborative dementia care through the Ochsner Neuroscience Institute’s Brain Health and Cognitive Disorders Program.

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Researchers evaluated a remotely supervised online chair yoga intervention targeted at older adults with dementia and measured clinical outcomes virtually via Zoom under the remote guidance. Results showed that remotely supervised online chair yoga is a feasible approach for managing physical and psychological symptoms in socially isolated older adults with dementia based on retention (70 percent) and adherence (87.5 percent), with no injury or other adverse events.

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New research from the University of Chicago Medicine shows that a decline in a person’s sense of smell over time predicts their loss of cognitive function and can foretell structural changes in regions of the brain that are important in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The findings could lead to the development of smell-test screening to detect cognitive impairment earlier in patients.

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Physician-scientists from the Jona Goldrich Center for Alzheimer’s and Memory Disorders at Cedars-Sinai are available for media interviews during the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) taking place online and in person July 31-Aug. 4, 2022, in San Diego.

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People who eat the highest amounts of ultra-processed foods like soft drinks, chips and cookies may have a higher risk of developing dementia than those who eat the lowest amounts, according to a new study published in the July 27, 2022, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers also found that replacing ultra-processed foods in a person’s diet with unprocessed or minimally processed foods was associated with a lower risk. The study does not prove that ultra-processed foods cause dementia. It only shows an association.

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Physical and mental activities, such as household chores, exercise, and visiting with family and friends, may help lower the risk of dementia, according to a new study published in the July 27, 2022, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study looked at the effects of these activities, as well as mental activities and use of electronic devices in people both with and without higher genetic risk for dementia.

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A new study compares two approaches to improving memory in people with mild cognitive impairment.

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University of Utah researchers developed a protocol for using robotic pets with older adults with dementia. The protocol uses a low-cost robotic pet, establishes ideal session lengths, and identifies common participant responses to the pets to aid in future research.

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Studies have shown that physical and mental activity help preserve thinking skills and delay dementia. A new study suggests that these benefits may vary for men and women. The study is published in the July 20, 2022, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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尊敬的妙佑医疗国际：我今年40多岁，有两个年幼的孩子。我母亲在60出头的时候出现了记忆问题，并且逐渐恶化。她的姐妹也存在相关的问题。怎样才能降低我和我的孩子患痴呆症的风险呢？我们平时应该吃一些特定的食物和补充剂，或者进行一些活动来降低记忆丧失的风险吗？

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ESTIMADA MAYO CLINIC: Estoy en la mitad de la década de los 40 años y tengo dos hijos pequeños. Mi madre presentó problemas con la memoria poco después de cumplir 60 años y la situación ha ido empeorando progresivamente.

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ESTIMADA MAYO CLINIC: Tenho um pouco mais de 40 anos e tenho dois filhos pequenos. Minha mãe desenvolveu problemas de memória com cerca de 60 anos, e isso tem piorado progressivamente. As irmãs dela também têm problemas relacionados.

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Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease are caused by folding errors (misfolding) in proteins or peptides, i.e. by changes in their spatial structure. This is the result of minute deviations in the chemical composition of the biomolecules. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a simple and effective method for detecting such misfolding at an early stage of the disease. Misfolding is revealed by the structure of dried residue from protein and peptide solutions.

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With a $45 million grant from the NIH, UC San Diego researchers and collaborators will launch a nationwide clinical trial to further investigate the therapeutic potential of benfotiamine, a synthetic version of thiamine (B1), as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

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Researchers found significant differences in movement patterns between participants with normal cognition and those with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease.