Deep Brain Stimulation shows promise for patients with Alzheimer's. In a world first, Dr. Andres M. Lozano and his team at Toronto Western Hospital has shown using Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) on patients with early signs of Alzheimer's disease is safe and may help improve memory. The phase one safety trial of six Ontario patients took place from 2005 to 2008. All patients left hospital within 2 to 3 days of surgery, and continue to participate in regular follow-up cognitive assessments. Throughout these assessments, Dr. "While the study was not looking for efficacy, the results suggest that of the six patients, three may have done better than if the Alzheimer's disease was allowed to run its course," commented Lozano. Dr. "We've demonstrated this is safe, and that the evidence warrants more study. Could Deep Brain Stimulation Fend Off Alzheimer’s?
Could generating new cells in brain regions associated with memory stave off the symptoms of Alzheimer’s? A new study by researchers in Canada, who used deep brain stimulation to trigger neuron growth in mice, suggests it can. Last year, a small safety study of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in humans found that it slowed rates of cognitive decline and even led to some actual memory improvement in six patients with early stage Alzheimer’s. These patients had the brain stimulators — electrodes implanted in a targeted area of the brain — activated for one year. The current research in mice used DBS in the entorhinal cortex, a brain area that interacts with a critical memory region called the hippocampus. Without a functioning hippocampus, neither humans nor mice can form most types of new memories. MORE: With Benefits: Being Highly Social Cuts Dementia Risk by 70% Pregnant women who exercise protect their offspring against long-term neurodegenerative diseases.
Pregnant women who exercise protect their offspring against long-term neurodegenerative diseases Monday, September 26, 2011 If you are pregnant, here's another reason to work out: you will reduce the chances of your new baby developing neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, later in life. A new research report published online in The FASEB Journal shows that mice bred to develop a neurodegenerative disease roughly equivalent to Alzheimer's disease showed fewer signs of the disease and greater brain plasticity later in life when their mothers exercised regularly than those whose mothers did not exercise. "This research provides an experimental rationale for the effects of beneficial behavioral stimuli experienced by the pregnant mother affecting the disease status of an as yet-unborn child.
To make this discovery, Keyvani and colleagues mated male mice that express a mutant form of the APP gene found in some Alzheimer's patients with healthy female wild-type mice. Award-winning research points toward Alzheimer's vaccine. An accomplice to the protein that causes plaque buildup in Alzheimer's disease is the focus of a potential new treatment, according to research by a Georgia Health Sciences University graduate student.
In Alzheimer's, the amyloid protein can accumulate in the brain instead of being eliminated by the body's natural defenses, nestling between the neurons and forming impassable plaques. Amyloid and the way it gets there could be targets for a new vaccine. "RAGE, or receptor for advanced glycation endproducts, proteins bind to amyloid and transport it into the brain," said Scott Webster, a fifth-year graduate student who is studying the disease in the lab of Dr. Alvin Terry, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Research has shown that RAGE may also contribute to the inflammation and damage that amyloid causes to the brain's nerve cells. "Unfortunately, all of the vaccines for Alzheimer's that have been through clinical trials have failed," he said.
Alzheimer's disease: The first prevention study of its kind. Researchers at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, in Montreal, Quebec, are about to launch the first epidemiological study on the prevention of Alzheimer's disease. "As far as we know, this is the first study of its kind to be carried out anywhere in the world," states John Breitner, the study's lead investigator and Director of the new Centre for Studies on Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease (StoP-Alzheimer). Dr John Breitner and Dr Judes Poirier, the Centre's Associate Director, will be recruiting 250 healthy adults aged 60 or over, who have (or had) a parent, brother or sister with Alzheimer's disease, in order to learn which methods are most effective at preventing this neurodegenerative condition.
Using a combined diagnostic approach of brain imaging and cerebrospinal fluid analysis, the researchers will observe their subjects' biomarkers for a period of ten years to find out which preventative agents can stop the disease from developing, long before symptoms appear. Hearing aids can help dementia patients. Hearing aids might help increase memory, reduce anxiety and increase social interaction among dementia patients, local health experts say. "Whether you have dementia or not, you need to hear," said Ronna Fisher, audiologist and founder and president of Hearing Health Center in Chicago and three suburbs. "It's not normal not to hear. Hearing is what makes us happy in our relationships. If you can't hear, you stop talking. " Improved sensory perception won't stop the progression of dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease, experts said, but increasing the ability to hear will help reduce a patient's loneliness and confusion.
The staff at Smith Village, a continuing-care retirement community in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood, said it has noticed increased participation among residents who address their hearing problems. "Getting hearing aids does help them," said Diane Morgan, memory support coordinator. The research should offer hope to physicians treating dementia patients, said Dr. Study evaluates intranasal insulin therapy for adults with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s. Intranasal insulin therapy appears to provide some benefit for cognitive function in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. According to background information in the article, insulin plays a role in a number of functions of the central nervous system. "The importance of insulin in normal brain function is underscored by evidence that insulin dysregulation contributes to the pathophysiology of Alzheimer disease (AD), a disorder characterized in its earliest stages by synaptic loss and memory impairment," the authors write.
"Insulin levels and insulin activity in the central nervous system are reduced in AD. " Study participants were randomized into one of three treatment groups, with 36 participants receiving 20 IU (international unit) of insulin daily, 38 receiving 40 IU of insulin daily, and 30 participants receiving placebo daily for four months. Short-Term Memory Loss May Be Best Predictor of Alzheimer's. Cognitive changes may predict Alzheimer's disease development more accurately than biomarkers. Compared with changes in biomarkers, changes in cognitive abilities appear to be stronger predictors of whether an individual with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) will develop Alzheimer's disease, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Biomarkers such as changes in brain volume or in cerebrospinal fluid levels of some proteins have helped scientists learn about how Alzheimer's disease develops and whether treatments for it are effective, according to background information in the article. Behavioral markers such as cognitive changes, genetic risk factors and demographic variables also seem to be associated with the condition. However, the authors write, "despite formidable evidence for the predictive validity of individual biomarkers and behavioral markers, they have rarely been examined in combined models. " Jesus J. Mystery ingredient in coffee boosts protection against Alzheimer's disease, study finds. A yet unidentified component of coffee interacts with the beverage's caffeine, which could be a surprising reason why daily coffee intake protects against Alzheimer's disease. A new Alzheimer's mouse study by researchers at the University of South Florida found that this interaction boosts blood levels of a critical growth factor that seems to fight off the Alzheimer's disease process.
The findings appear in the early online version of an article to be published June 28 in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. Using mice bred to develop symptoms mimicking Alzheimer's disease, the USF team presents the first evidence that caffeinated coffee offers protection against the memory-robbing disease that is not possible with other caffeine-containing drinks or decaffeinated coffee.
Previous observational studies in humans reported that daily coffee/caffeine intake during mid-life and in older age decreases the risk of Alzheimer's disease. Coffee component tied to caffeine may repress Alzheimer's disease risk. By RICHARD MARTIN, St. Petersburg Times A recent study points not to caffeine, but rather an unidentified component in coffee that interacts with caffeine, as a potential weapon against Alzheimer's disease, which afflicts more than 5 million Americans.
Recent studies have shown that heavy doses of caffeine might help prevent or delay the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. But rather than guzzling down super-caffeinated drinks such as Red Bull or taking stay-awake caffeine pills such as NoDoz, researchers at the University of South Florida say coffee might be the way to go. A new study points not to caffeine, but rather an unidentified component in coffee that interacts with caffeine, as a potential weapon against the memory-robbing disease that afflicts more than 5 million Americans.
Using mice bred to develop Alzheimer's symptoms, the USF researchers found that caffeinated coffee causes an increase in blood levels of a growth factor called GCSF, or granulocyte colony-stimulating factor.