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We may finally know what causes Alzheimer’s – and how to stop it. By Debora MacKenzie If you bled when you brushed your teeth this morning, you might want to get that seen to.

We may finally know what causes Alzheimer’s – and how to stop it

We may finally have found the long-elusive cause of Alzheimer’s disease: Porphyromonas gingivalis, the key bacteria in chronic gum disease. Herpes Viruses Linked to Alzheimer's Disease in New Brain Research. European Scientists Have Made an Intriguing Discovery in Alzheimer's Drug Research. Novel discovery offers hope for treatment of Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases. August 10, 2018 There is new hope for the treatment of Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases following a ground-breaking discovery made by an Australian-Chinese research collaboration.

Novel discovery offers hope for treatment of Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases

Researchers from the University of South Australia and the Third Military Medical University in China have discovered a signal pathway within cells, and also invented a potential drug that could stop degeneration and actually improve learning and memory in affected patients.

Lewy Body Dimentia

New leads on treating dementia and Alzheimer's. A new study by scientists in Australia and the US provides an explanation for why clinical trials of drugs targeting proteins in the brain that were thought to cause dementia and Alzheimer's have failed.

New leads on treating dementia and Alzheimer's

The study has opened the way for potential new treatments with existing drugs. Published online in the journal Human Molecular Genetics, the researchers assembled evidence from a wide range of human studies and animal models of dementia-related diseases to show that inflammation is a major cause, not just a consequence. They show that many genes linked with dementia regulate our susceptibility and response to inflammatory damage. "For decades, scientists have thought that dementia and Alzheimer's Disease are caused by protein aggregates forming in the brain. Is ‘friendly fire’ in the brain provoking Alzheimer’s disease? Neuroscientist Michael Heneka knows that radical ideas require convincing data.

Is ‘friendly fire’ in the brain provoking Alzheimer’s disease?

In 2010, very few colleagues shared his belief that the brain’s immune system has a crucial role in dementia. So in May of that year, when a batch of new results provided the strongest evidence he had yet seen for his theory, he wanted to be excited, but instead felt nervous. He and his team had eliminated a key inflammation gene from a strain of mouse that usually develops symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The modified mice seemed perfectly healthy. They sailed through memory tests and showed barely a sign of the sticky protein plaques that are a hallmark of the disease. Even he was surprised how well the mice fared; he had expected that removal of the gene, known as Nlpr3, would protect their brains a little, but not that it would come close to preventing dementia symptoms.

He reanalysed the results again and again. But there are roadblocks ahead. Clogged and swollen Heroes and villains Shelter from the storm. Expert Probes Possible Reasons for Loss of Smell. Human Brain Has A Direct Link To The Immune System After All. Alzheimer's disease causes atrophy of brain tissue.

Human Brain Has A Direct Link To The Immune System After All

The discovery that lymph vessels near the brain's surface help remove waste suggests glitches in the lymph system might be involved in Alzheimer's and a variety of other brain diseases. Alfred Pasieka/Science Source hide caption toggle caption Alfred Pasieka/Science Source. Alzheimer’s study finds surprising, quick gains for patients - UCHealth. What Can Prevent Alzheimer's? Here's What the Evidence Shows. There’s no strong evidence that anything prevents Alzheimer’s disease, but a few common-sense practices may help delay memory loss, a panel of experts said Thursday.

What Can Prevent Alzheimer's? Here's What the Evidence Shows

They include controlling high blood pressure, regular exercise and specific memory training exercises. Outside of that, there’s no miracle cure and no surefire way to delay the loss of brain power that comes with aging, or the onset of dementia, the committee at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concluded. Blood From Human Umbilical Cords Can Rejuvenate Old Mouse Brains - The Atlantic. When a baby is born, the now-useless umbilical cord is usually thrown away.

Blood From Human Umbilical Cords Can Rejuvenate Old Mouse Brains - The Atlantic

But sometimes, it finds renewed purpose. Parents can decide to donate the blood from the cord to blood banks, which freeze the stem cells within so they can eventually be used to treat people with various cancers and genetic disorders. In the process, plasma—the liquid portion of blood—is usually ignored. But neuroscientist Tony Wyss-Coray thinks this liquid has a purpose, too. Experts excited by brain 'wonder-drug' Image copyright Getty Images Scientists hope they have found a drug to stop all neurodegenerative brain diseases, including dementia.

Experts excited by brain 'wonder-drug'

In 2013, a UK Medical Research Council team stopped brain cells dying in an animal for the first time, creating headline news around the world. But the compound used was unsuitable for people, as it caused organ damage. Now two drugs have been found that should have the same protective effect on the brain and are already safely used in people. Medscape Access. Medscape Access. Medscape Access. Medscape Access. Alzheimer's protein buildup disrupts the brain's navigation center. Alzheimer’s Plaque in Mice Cut in Half With Flashing Lights. Radiolab, a frequent favorite among the public radio set, uncharacteristically covered a bit of breaking news on Dec. 8, speaking to researchers who’d just published their novel approach to treating Alzheimer’s-infected lab mice.

Alzheimer’s Plaque in Mice Cut in Half With Flashing Lights

They found that after a week of treatment using optogenetics, which allows researchers to switch specific neurons in the brain on and off, the amyloid plaque that’s believed to contribute to Alzheimer’s was reduced by a startling 40 to 50 percent. The researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory inundated the brains of mice with bright flashing lights at a specific frequency, in order to trigger the nonfunctioning cells that normally clean the plaque to do their job again.

Medscape Access. Beating Alzheimer’s With Brain Waves - The Atlantic. When a crowd starts to applaud, each person initially does so to their own rhythm.

Beating Alzheimer’s With Brain Waves - The Atlantic

But in some cases, those claps can synchronize, with hundreds or thousands or millions of hands striking in unison. Something similar happens in the brain. When a single neuron fires, it sends an electrical pulse down its length. Beneficial effects of increased lysozyme levels in Alzheimer's disease modelled in Drosophila melanogaster - Sandin - 2016 - The FEBS Journal. Genetic polymorphisms of immune genes that associate with higher risk to develop Alzheimer's disease (AD) have led to an increased research interest on the involvement of the immune system in AD pathogenesis.

A link between amyloid pathology and immune gene expression was suggested in a genome-wide gene expression study of transgenic amyloid mouse models. In this study, the gene expression of lysozyme, a major player in the innate immune system, was found to be increased in a comparable pattern as the amyloid pathology developed in transgenic mouse models of AD. A similar pattern was seen at protein levels of lysozyme in human AD brain and CSF, but this lysozyme pattern was not seen in a tau transgenic mouse model.

Lysozyme was demonstrated to be beneficial for different Drosophila melanogaster models of AD. Beneficial effects of increased lysozyme levels in Alzheimer's disease modelled in Drosophila melanogaster - Sandin - 2016 - The FEBS Journal. Abstract. Nbcnews. Rates of Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia appear to have fallen considerably since 2000, and better education may be partly responsible, researchers reported Monday. Better treatment for diabetes and cardiovascular disease may also be helping, the researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Kenneth Langa of the University of Michigan and colleagues studied records from 21,000 people with an average age of 75.

While 11.6 percent of Americans aged 65 and older had dementia, based on standardized tests, the rate fell to 8.8 percent in 2012. "More years of education was associated with a lower risk for dementia, and average years of education increased significantly," they wrote. In 2000, the average amount of education was 11.8 years — just short of a full high school education. Antibody Reduces Harmful Brain Amyloid Plaques in Alzheimer's Patients. Although the causes of Alzheimer's disease are still unknown, it is clear that the disease commences with progressive amyloid deposition in the brains of affected persons between ten and fifteen years before the emergence of initial clinical symptoms such as memory loss. Researchers have now been able to show that Aducanumab, a human monoclonal antibody, selectively binds brain amyloid plaques, thus enabling microglial cells to remove the plaques.

A one-year treatment with the antibody, as part of a phase Ib study, resulted in almost complete clearance of the brain amyloid plaques in the study group patients. The results, which were realized by researchers at UZH together with the biotech company “Biogen” and the UZH spin-off “Neurimmune,” have been published in the renowned science journal “Nature.”

Some People With Alzheimer’s Pathology Have Superior Memory – Neuroscience News. Summary: Some elderly people harbor extensive Alzheimer’s pathology in their brain and have no evidence of the cognitive decline associated with the disease, researchers report. Source: Northwestern University. New mechanism discovered for Alzheimer’s risk gene - Salk Institute for Biological Studies. More Than 50 Percent of People Over 90 With Alzheimer’s Use Psychotropic Drugs – Neuroscience News. Summary: According to a new study, hunger can suppress rival drive states such as fear, anxiety, thirst or social needs. Computer Simulations Explore How Alzheimer’s Starts – Neuroscience News. Smell Test May Predict Early Stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. Source: Thinkstock Photos NEW YORK, NY, July 26, 2016–Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), New York State Psychiatric Institute, and NewYork-Presbyterian reported that an odor identification test may prove useful in predicting cognitive decline and detecting early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.

Their two studies, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association’s International Conference in Toronto, Canada, suggest that the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) may offer a practical, low-cost alternative to other tests. Neuroscience and stuff — medresearch: Study Reveals the Possibility of... The Guardian. Mitochondria Affect Stress Response ... Penn scientists make breakthrough in Alzheimer's disease research.