Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Latest Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Tuned lighting helps improve sleep in nursing home residents, study finds

Nursing home residents tend to fall asleep at all hours of the day, and during the night, their sleep may be interrupted by periods of wakefulness.

6 Oct 2020

IL-21 protein is a major part of immune response to chronic infections in the central nervous system

Researchers at Penn State College of Medicine now better understand the role of a protein, interleukin-21 (IL-21), in the immune system response to infections in the nervous system.

6 Oct 2020

NIH researchers discover how the brain may fuel intense neural conversations

Our thoughts, feelings, and movements are controlled by billions of neurons talking to each other at trillions of specialized communication points called synapses.

5 Oct 2020

NIH awards $13.8 million to conduct studies on pre-dementia and Alzheimer's disease

Joe Verghese, M.B.B.S., M.S., , an international leader in aging and cognition research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, has received two grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling $13.8 million to conduct studies on pre-dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

5 Oct 2020

New, rare genetic form of dementia discovered

A new, rare genetic form of dementia has been discovered by a team of Penn Medicine researchers. This discovery also sheds light on a new pathway that leads to protein build up in the brain -- which causes this newly discovered disease, as well as related neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's Disease -- that could be targeted for new therapies.

1 Oct 2020

Study finds 94% of dementia caregivers in Australia are sleep deprived

New Edith Cowan University research has found 94 per cent of Australians caring for a loved one with dementia are sleep deprived.

1 Oct 2020

Social isolation worsens the effects of Alzheimer's disease, study shows

A study in mice conducted by the UAB shows that social isolation worsens the effects of Alzheimer's disease, with hyperactivity levels reaching up to twice as much as in the pathology itself.

1 Oct 2020

Study links poorer cognitive performance with greater risk for impaired daily life activities

Subtle differences in cognition may help identify individuals at risk for becoming dependent years later upon others to complete daily activities, such as managing medications or finances and other essential activities.

30 Sep 2020

Cancer chemotherapy changes the function of cells that repair heart injury

Cancer chemotherapy changes the function of cells that repair heart injury, researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) discovered.

30 Sep 2020

Novel technique could lead to earlier detection and treatment of Alzheimer's disease

Won Hwa Kim, an assistant professor of computer science at The University of Texas at Arlington, is using a two-year, $175,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to use machine learning for earlier detection of Alzheimer's disease.

29 Sep 2020

Study pinpoints heating element in vaping devices as cause for lung injuries

Early results of an experimental vaping study have shown significant lung injury from E-cigarette (eC) devices with nickel-chromium alloy heating elements.

28 Sep 2020

Brain wiring genes may be linked to a significant portion of cerebral palsy cases

In an article published in Nature Genetics, researchers confirm that about 14% of all cases of cerebral palsy, a disabling brain disorder for which there are no cures, may be linked to a patient's genes and suggest that many of those genes control how brain circuits become wired during early development.

28 Sep 2020

Epigenetic changes in the brain drive late-onset Alzheimer's disease

New findings suggest that late-onset Alzheimer's Disease is driven by epigenetic changes -- how and when certain genes are turned on and off -- in the brain. Results were published today in Nature Genetics.

28 Sep 2020

Study finds identical signs of brain damage in sleep apnea and Alzheimer's disease

New research has confirmed long-suspected links between sleep apnea and Alzheimer's disease, finding identical signs of brain damage in both conditions.

28 Sep 2020

Risk factors for mortality among hospitalized patients with COVID-19

A new study by scientists at biotechnology company Genentech, Inc., and published on the preprint server medRxiv in September 2020 attempts to identify the factors which may shape the risk for death in COVID-19 disease.

27 Sep 2020

New study links 160 genes to brain shrinkage

A new study implicates 160 genes in brain shrinkage seen on MRIs of 45,000 healthy adults. The shrinkage is in the cortex, the dimply outer layer of the brain that gives rise to thinking, awareness and action, and largely consists of gray matter.

25 Sep 2020

Study: 2020 presidential candidates Biden, Trump likely to be "super-agers"

In a paper published in the Journal on Active Aging, University of Illinois Chicago longevity researcher S. Jay Olshansky and his colleagues conclude that both 2020 presidential candidates -; former Vice President Joe Biden, 77, and President Donald Trump, 74 -; are likely to maintain their health beyond the end of the next presidential term.

25 Sep 2020

Personality traits are associated with cognitive resilience in older adults

Our aging brains collect tangles and sticky plaques that can interfere in our cognition and memory. But some older adults with this neuropathology have more cognitive resilience than others, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

25 Sep 2020

Alzheimer’s disease-associated protective genetic variant enhances key functions of immune cells

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Eastern Finland found that the PLCG2-P522R genetic variant, which protects against Alzheimer's disease, enhances several key functions of immune cells. The results obtained in the study highlight the importance of immune cells as a target of future development of new therapies for Alzheimer's disease.

25 Sep 2020

FDA issues updated recommendations concerning dental amalgam

Part of our role in protecting patients is to regularly evaluate, monitor and update scientific evidence on the risks from medical devices—including issues related to the materials used in devices, such as metals.

25 Sep 2020