Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have identified in live human brains new radioactive “tracer” molecules that bind to and “light up” tau tangles, a protein associated with a number of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias. Two studies will be published back-to-back in the December issue of Journal of Nuclear Medicine—one as featured article of the month—describing testing of three candidate molecules in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, as
(HealthDay)—There's growing evidence that the herpes virus responsible for cold sores also may cause Alzheimer's disease, a new research paper contends. It's been long known that herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1) can been found in the brains of elderly people with Alzheimer's disease, and research has shown that herpes increases Alzheimer's risk in people genetically predisposed to dementia, said researcher Ruth Itzhaki. Newer data suggest that treating people with antiviral
When recovering from a brain injury, getting back in the swing of things may be more effective than a prolonged period of rest, according to a new Columbia study in mice. These findings offer a compelling example of the brain’s remarkable capacity to adapt in response to trauma. They also point to new, activity-centered treatment strategies that could one day result in faster and more complete recovery times for patients
Combination immunotherapy shrank melanoma that has spread to the brain in more than half of the patients in a clinical trial reported in the New England Journal of Medicine led by an investigator at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Of 94 patients in the single-arm study combining checkpoint inhibitors ipilimumab and nivolumab, at a minimum follow-up of nine months and a median of 14 months, 24 (26 percent)
A University of Adelaide-led team of scientists has suggested a potential link between iron in our cells and the rare gene mutations that cause Alzheimer’s disease, which could provide new avenues for future research. In a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, the team proposes a new theory for how rare gene mutations cause Alzheimer’s disease. A theory that, if proven, could assist in finding a way to prevent the
[embed]https://youtu.be/_I3CeUIVgq4[/embed] Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have identified a peptide that could lead to the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The discovery, published in Nature Communications, may also provide a means of homing drugs to diseased areas of the brain to treat AD, Parkinson’s disease, as well as glioblastoma, brain injuries and stroke. “Our goal was to find a new biomarker for AD,” says Aman
While immune cells called neutrophils are known to act as infantry in the body's war on germs, a National Institutes of Health-funded study suggests they can act as medics as well. By studying rodents, researchers showed that instead of attacking germs, some neutrophils may help heal the brain after an intracerebral hemorrhage, a form of stroke caused by ruptured blood vessels. The study suggests that two neutrophil-related proteins may play
A team of biologists has found an unexpected source for the brain’s development, a finding that offers new insights into the building of the nervous system. The research, which appears in the journal Science, discovered that glia, a collection of non-neuronal cells that had long been regarded as passive support cells, in fact are vital to nerve-cell development in the brain. “The results lead us to revise the often neuro-centric
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a slowly developing neurodegenerative condition typical of athletes involved in contact sports. This was evidenced in a recent study in which nearly every former NFL player whose brain was investigated had suffered from CTE. The findings released this week were part of a study conducted by two leading medical institutions devoted to CTE research — the VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University School of Medicine
A new study in mice reveals that eosinophils, a type of disease-fighting white blood cell, appear to be at least partly responsible for the progression of heart muscle inflammation to heart failure in mice. In a report on the findings, published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine on March 16, researchers found that while eosinophils are not required for heart inflammation to occur, they are needed for it to progress
Pregnancy involves radical hormone surges and biological adaptations, but the effects on the brain are still unknown. In this study a team of researchers compared the structure of the brain of women before and after their first pregnancy. This is the first research to show that pregnancy involves long-lasting changes - at least for two years post-partum - in the morphology of a woman's brain. Using magnetic resonance imaging, the
Electrocranial stimulation offers hope for Alzheimer's patients Funding for clinical trials of a new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease has been announced by the Weston Brain Institute. Dr. Zahra Moussavi, Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, is receiving $1,737,960 for her project on investigating the efficacy of high-frequency rTMS treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease has no known cure and is called the pandemic of the
A team at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre (CSC), based at Imperial College London, has found an important part of the machinery that switches on a gene known to protect against Alzheimer’s Disease. Working in collaboration with scientists at the Hong Kong University (HKU) and the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, CSC associate professor Richard Festenstein explored the steps by which this Neuroglobin gene is gradually switched on, or up-regulated. Neuroglobin
People with high levels of four biomarkers in the blood may be more likely to develop a stroke than people with low levels of the biomarkers, according to a study published in the August 24, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Identifying people who are at risk for stroke can help us determine who would benefit most from existing or new therapies
A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who studies the most common genetic intellectual disability has used an experimental drug to reverse — in mice — damage from the mutation that causes the syndrome. The condition, called fragile X, has devastating effects on intellectual abilities. Fragile X affects one boy in 4,000 and one girl in 7,000. It is caused by a mutation in a gene that fails to make the protein
Studying a new type of pinhead-size, lab-grown brain made with technology first suggested by three high school students, Johns Hopkins researchers have confirmed a key way in which Zika virus causes microcephaly and other damage in fetal brains: by infecting specialized stem cells that build its outer layer, the cortex. The lab-grown mini-brains, which researchers say are truer to life and more cost-effective than similar research models, came about thanks
