Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Latest Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

High fat, low carb diet may help Alzheimer's sufferers

Scientists have discovered that a high fat, low carbohydrate diet improves Alzheimer's disease in mice and say the study results may also have implications for dieters.

17 Oct 2005

High fat, low carb diet improves Alzheimer's disease in mice

A report published today in the BioMed Central, open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism, showed that a brain protein, amyloid-beta, which is an indicator of Alzheimer's disease, is reduced in mice on the so-called ketogenic diet.

16 Oct 2005

Ebixa (memantine) approved for the treatment of moderate Alzheimer's disease

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has announced its decision to extend Ebixa’s current indication (moderately severe to severe disease) to include moderate stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

16 Oct 2005

Biologists uncover pivotal role of a gene called "Cut"

A DNA-binding protein, Cut interprets and transcribes the developmental signals sent through the "Notch" gene, which regulates a layer of epithelial cells as they replicate and divide. But when Cut garbles those signals the result is uncontrolled cell proliferation, sometimes with dire genetic and health consequences.

12 Oct 2005

Combining fMRI and PET scanning creates a way to compare different measurements of the brain's function concurrently

Clinical researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) are the first to combine fMRI and PET scanning in radiology, creating a way to compare different measurements of the brain's function concurrently. This analysis could lead to better diagnosis and treatment in patients suffering from brain disorders, like Alzheimer's disease.

12 Oct 2005

Aging may intensify and prolong feeling run down when common infections like the flu occur

A new study, done with mice and published in the Federation of the American Societies of Experimental Biology Journal, suggests that miscommunication between the immune system and brain may be to blame for extended sickness symptoms and other cognitive disorders in elderly people and animals with an infection.

11 Oct 2005

Natural cancer killing cells from the human embryonic stem cells

For the first time, stem cell researchers at the University of Minnesota have coaxed human embryonic stem cells to create cancer-killing cells in the laboratory, paving the way for future treatments for various types of cancers (or tumors).

11 Oct 2005

Obesity linked to dementia and Alzheimer's disease

Individuals who were obese at midlife had an increased risk for dementia later in life compared to individuals of normal weight, according to an article in the October issue of Archives of Neurology.

10 Oct 2005

New way to measure the impact of AIDS on the living brain

A new University of California - Los Angeles/University of Pittsburgh imaging study for the first time shows the selective pattern of destruction inflicted by AIDS on brain regions that control motor, language and sensory functions. High-resolution 3-D color scans created from magnetic resonance images (MRI) vividly illustrate the damage.

10 Oct 2005

Eating fish lowers risk of dementia

Consuming fish at least once a week was associated with a 10 percent per year slower rate of cognitive decline in elderly people, according to a new study from the Archives of Neurology.

10 Oct 2005

Prozac helps learning and memory in people with Huntington's disease

People with Huntington's disease have progressive motor problems, cognitive deficits (dementia) and psychiatric symptoms (the most common is depression) that usually start to appear in mid-life. There is no cure and death usually results within 10 to 20 years of symptom onset, or faster in the childhood-onset form of the disease.

9 Oct 2005

Fear of falling gait

The patient came into the doctor's office in a wheelchair, weighted down by a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, taking medication for the disorder and insisting she was unable to stand or walk. Thirty minutes later, after jogging down the hallway, she strolled out the door.

9 Oct 2005

Specific gene on chromosome 15 regulates inflammation

A team of international researchers has discovered that a specific gene on chromosome 15 regulates inflammation, a finding with implications for a wide range of disorders, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer's, and infections. The findings are published in the October 9 online issue of Nature Genetics.

9 Oct 2005

Osmolyte findings could have implications for the study of Alzheimer's disease, cystic fibrosis, kidney disease

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) have developed a new way to predict the ability of certain small molecules to protect proteins in the cells of a wide variety of organisms living in extreme environments.

9 Oct 2005

Gut antibody could prove to be a promising drug target for Crohn's disease

A collaboration led by the Burnham Institute for Medical Research has found that an antibody which binds to an unusual sugar molecule residing in the gut halts the inflammation seen in Crohn's disease and other intestinal inflammations. The antibody could prove to be a promising drug target for these common chronic intestinal disorders.

9 Oct 2005

Earliest signs of Alzheimer's can be screened for with an electroencephalograph

Although Alzheimer's disease affects millions of people worldwide, there is no way to identify this devastating brain disease at its earliest stages when there still may be time to delay or even prevent the downward spiral into dementia.

5 Oct 2005

PET imaging with FDG represents one of the most promising tools for diagnosis of Alzheimer's

Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging--with the radiotracer fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)--is a promising tool in detecting Alzheimer's disease in patients who have mild cognitive impairment (MCI), according to a study reported in the October issue of the Society of Nuclear Medicine's Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

5 Oct 2005

Divalent metal transporter-1 decreases metal-related injury in the lung

Multi-vitamin products, nutritional supplements and parents tout the need for such mineral elements as calcium, zinc, phosphorus, iron and others.

4 Oct 2005

Landmark study aims to find genetic link to Alzheimer's disease

More than 500 families affected by Alzheimer's Disease are participating in a landmark study led by Columbia University Medical Center to find a genetic link to the disease. That number will now double to 1,000 under a new $10 million five-year grant from National Institute on Aging.

3 Oct 2005

Body's own defenses may cause HIV-related dementia

Publishing in the Sept. 2005 issue of the Journal of Virology, the researchers show that HIV in the temporal lobe mutates at a rate 100 times faster than in other parts of the body, triggering white blood cells to continually swarm to attack the infection. The associated overcrowding and inflammation appear to cause the dementia.

3 Oct 2005