Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Memory Sunday aims to lift silence around Alzheimer's disease in the black community: VIDEO

Mary Mitchell of Corinthian Missionary Baptist Church is helping to recruit churches for Memory Sunday, an Alzheimer's awareness day on June 11.
(Photo: Darla Carter/The Courier-Journal)

The way Pernessa Seele sees it, some African Americans aren’t taking Alzheimer’s disease seriously enough.

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Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Why L.A. County is looking at tracking bracelets to help find Alzheimer’s patients who wander

Nancy Paulikas (center), a 56-year-old Manhattan Beach resident with early onset Alzheimer’s disease, has been missing since she wandered from a visit to LACMA on Oct. 15, 2016. Her disappearance prompted L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn to create a task force aimed at helping authorities more quickly find people with cognitive disorders who wander. While most who go missing are located, (including those pictured around Paulikas) some cases end in tragedy. 


Life changed fast for Kirk Moody when his wife, Nancy Paulikas, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s in October 2015.
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Monday, May 29, 2017

Death Rates from Alzheimer’s Disease Jump by 55 Percent How? Why?

Death rates from Alzheimer's disease rise sharply indicating a need for greater patient and caregiver assistance.

Death rates from Alzheimer’s disease increased by 55 percent
By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room

Death rates from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) increased by 55 percent between 1999 and 2014, according to a study released by the Centers for Disease control and Prevention (CDC).
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Sunday, May 28, 2017

Maria Shriver’s coloring book for Alzheimer’s patients and their families

For families dealing with dementia, Maria Shriver developed a coloring book in collaboration with neurologists, psychologists and nursing home residents. (STEPHAN SAVOIA/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Maria Shriver has advice for people with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers: Get crayons and markers. Then fill in the butterfly wings, balloons and other uplifting images on the pages of “Color Your Mind,” a coloring book she developed in collaboration with neurologists, psychologists and nursing home residents.
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Saturday, May 27, 2017

Deaths From Alzheimer's Up 55% Since 1999

Image Source: CONCEPTNEWSCENTRAL

Deaths from Alzheimer's disease rose by 55% between 1999 and 2014, according to a new report published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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Friday, May 26, 2017

DNA vaccine protects against toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer's

UT Southwestern researchers have developed a DNA vaccine that helps the body protect against toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. These images show amyloid plaque in the mouse brain using plasma containing anti-amyloid antibody from large mammals immunized with the vaccine.
Credit: Image courtesy of UT Southwestern Medical CenterClose

A new DNA vaccine when delivered to the skin prompts an immune response that produces antibodies to protect against toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease -- without triggering severe brain swelling that earlier antibody treatments caused in some patients.

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Thursday, May 25, 2017

Biomarkers in Saliva May Spot Alzheimer's Early

Results of a pilot study suggest that biomarkers in saliva may help identify people at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease (AD).
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Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Alzheimer's disease: Family history may explain puzzling link to metabolic gene: VIDEO

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

For years, scientists have contemplated the link between the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and a metabolic gene called TOMM40, which affects the function of mitochondria, the components inside cells that provide them with energy. Studies have produced mixed results, giving rise to much frustration. However, a new study now finds that a third factor, family history of Alzheimer's, may be the missing link. It shows that having a family history of Alzheimer's disease appears to alter the behavior of TOMM40.

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Labels: study

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

New Findings About Alzheimer's Protein Could Lead to New Drug Treatments

Dr. Paul Greengard
Image Source: ALZINFO
      
NEW YORK, May 22, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Scientists at the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research in New York, led by Nobel Laureate Dr. Paul Greengard, have identified new ways in which a protein called presenilin 1 may act to cause the sticky brain plaques that are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. The findings could open up new avenues of research for the development of novel, more effective drugs for Alzheimer's, a disease that currently has no cure.
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Monday, May 22, 2017

How One Town Hopes to Cure Alzheimer's

Judy Culbertson gets lost sometimes. She might be on her way home from the grocery store or some other place she’s been dozens of times, when she suddenly finds herself on a street she doesn’t recognize.

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Sunday, May 21, 2017

Could Omega-3 Protect Against Alzheimer’s?

This is an example of the Omega-3 Index, the method utilized in this study for measuring omega-3 fatty acid levels in red blood cell membranes in the study. NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to William S. Harris, PHD.[/caption]

Neuroimaging shows increased blood flow in regions of the brain associated with memory and learning for people with higher omega-3 levels, according to a new report in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
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Labels: study

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Diagnostic biomarkers in saliva show promise in recognizing early Alzheimer's disease

Image Source: BEAUMONT

Noninvasive test uses small molecules in saliva to help identify those at risk

Your spit may hold a clue to future brain health. Investigators at the Beaumont Research Institute, part of Beaumont Health in Michigan, are hopeful that their study involving small molecules in saliva will help identify those at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease - a neurologic condition predicted to reach epidemic proportions worldwide by 2050.
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Friday, May 19, 2017

Could Magnetic Brain Stimulation Help People with Alzheimer’s?

Computer graphic of a vertical (coronal) slice through the brain of an Alzheimer patient (at left) compared with a normal brain (at right). Credit: PASIEKA Getty Images


A technology that uses magnetism to regulate neural activity shows a small benefit in patients with mild forms of the disease 

On the heels of one failed drug trial after another, a recent study suggests people with early Alzheimer’s disease could reap modest benefits from a device that uses magnetic fields to produce small electric currents in the brain.
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Thursday, May 18, 2017

New Insights Into Early Cognitive Markers for Alzheimer’s

Results showed that in comparison to the healthy group, participants with aMCI were significantly more impaired on responding to pictures of politicians (an easy task relying on spontaneous retrieval processes), but there were no group differences in responding to faces with glasses (a more difficult task relying on strategic monitoring). NeuroscienceNews.com image is for illustrative purposes only.

Summary: Findings could help doctors to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease at an earlier stage, researchers say.

Source: University of Hertfordshire.

New research led by the University of Hertfordshire may significantly change the understanding of cognitive processes that are most impaired at very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
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Labels: study

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

This test may predict your risk for Alzheimer's Disease: VIDEO

One of these things is not like the other. It's a common puzzle many of us know from brain teaser books, and it's these puzzles that may help determine your risk for Alzheimer's Disease.
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Labels: Video

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Science weekly: can we cure Alzheimer's? – podcast

Photograph: Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images

Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people worldwide. But despite decades of research costing hundreds of millions of dollars, we have no cure. Why?

It was first identified in 1901 by German scientist Alois Alzheimer; today, about 30 million people worldwide live with Alzheimer’s disease, a figure that could triple by 2050, according to some estimates.
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Monday, May 15, 2017

Corplex Donepezil Skin Patch Therapy Moves to Phase 1 Trial

A once-weekly transdermal patch delivers the most commonly prescribed treatment for Alzheimer’s disease in a way that is biologically equivalent to taking the medication orally, according to preliminary pilot study results. Corium International conducted the bioequivalence (BE) pilot study on its lead product, Corplex, which delivers donepezil — the same active ingredient found in the orally administrated Aricept (donepezil hydrochloride) — through skin absorption.
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Sunday, May 14, 2017

Probe of Alzheimer’s follows paths of infection

Starting with microbes, Harvard-MGH researchers outline a devastating chain of events

What if the bad-boy protein of Alzheimer’s disease — amyloid beta — isn’t so bad after all?
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Saturday, May 13, 2017

Gender gap in Alzheimer’s disease rates, caregiving needs more attention

SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Every day, Alzheimer’s disease forces women to make hard, life-altering choices about their careers, relationships, and finances.
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Friday, May 12, 2017

Music sparks memories in Alzheimer's patients: VIDEO

Patients, family members and the entire community are invited to Pathways Memory Care at 7 p.m. Thursday for a preview of the movie "Alive Inside."
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Labels: Video

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Researchers: Prevention by intervention key to Alzheimer's: VIDEO

Researchers at the University of Washington are on the cusp of something very exciting.

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Labels: Video

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Conference offers connections for Alzheimer's caregivers

Attendees visit the vendors' room at Tuesday's Adirondack Caregiver Forum at the Queensbury Hotel, which was sponsored by the Alzheimer's Association

Just after starting her keynote speech Tuesday, author Patti Kerr related a personal story about her mother, who had Alzheimer's disease.
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Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Researchers find that low levels of a specific protein cause Alzheimer's

Dr. Debbie Toiber in her lab. Credit: American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers have determined that the protein SIRT6 is almost completely absent in Alzheimer's disease patients and likely contributes to its onset.
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Monday, May 8, 2017

Exercise study offers hope in fight against Alzheimer's

The brain's posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus region is a hub of neuronal networks which integrates and disperses signals. A loss of connectivity to this hub is associated with memory loss and amyloid accumulation, both signs of MCI and Alzheimer's.  Credit: J. Carson Smith

Could the initiation of a simple walking exercise program help older adults to reverse declines in key brain regions? A new study led by University of Maryland School of Public Health researchers adds more information about how physical activity impacts brain physiology and offers hope that it may be possible to reestablish some protective neuronal connections. Dr. J. Carson Smith, associate professor of kinesiology, and colleagues explored how a 12-week walking intervention with older adults, ages 60-88, affected functionality of a brain region known to show declines in people suffering from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's disease.
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Sunday, May 7, 2017

What happened when Alzheimer’s patients were treated for the diseases we actually have cures for

Last summer, a research group from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) quietly published the results of a new approach in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. What they found was striking. Although the size of the study was small, every participant demonstrated such marked improvement that almost all were found to be in the normal range on testing for memory and cognition by the study’s end. Functionally, this amounts to a cure.
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Saturday, May 6, 2017

Who Suffers More - People With Alzheimer’s or Their Caregivers?

People with Alzheimer’s disease can become upset and agitated about things that happen to them. And when you, as the caregiver, witness your loved one’s anguish, you may become distressed, too – sometimes more so than your loved one.
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Friday, May 5, 2017

A major development in the public fight against Alzheimer's: VIDEO

John Livzey | Getty Images

For Mike Belleville, diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's three years ago was a call to action. A Massachusetts resident, Belleville began lobbying his state legislators. He even met with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and asked her to fight for more Alzheimer's funding, because he knew he'd forget about it as his disease progressed.

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Labels: Video

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Gene mutation may speed up memory loss in Alzheimer's disease

Diagram of the brain of a person with Alzheimer's Disease. Credit: Wikipedia/public domain.

A gene mutation may accelerate the loss of memory and thinking skills in people who are at risk for Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the May 3, 2017, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The gene mutation is called the BDNF Val66Met allele, or just the Met allele.
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Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Neurotrope misses primary endpoint in Alzheimer’s trial

A phase 2 trial of Neurotrope’s Alzheimer’s disease candidate has missed its primary endpoint. The study set out to show bryostatin improved performance on a neuropsychological test but failed to achieve statistical significance over placebo.

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Tuesday, May 2, 2017

'Silent seizures' discovered in patients with Alzheimer's disease

On the left is Dr. Alica Goldman and on the right is Dr. Jeffrey Noebels. Credit: Baylor College of Medicine

Deep in the brains of two patients with Alzheimer's disease, the main memory structure, the hippocampus, displays episodic seizure-like electrical activity. These non-convulsive hippocampal seizures are the first signs of 'silent' brain electrical network dysfunction described in patients with Alzheimer's disease. The discovery, published in the journal Nature Medicine, provides a better understanding of the condition and can potentially lead to new treatments for this devastating disease affecting more than 5 million people in the U.S.
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