Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Latest Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Alzheimer’s Association asks for $40 million in additional funding

The Alzheimer’s Association today called on the House of Representatives to provide $40 million in additional funding this year to the National Institutes of Health NIH) to support large-scale clinical trials for treatments that would slow or delay the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

30 Mar 2004

Joint Research Collaboration to Predict 3-D Protein Structures and Support Drug Discovery

IBM today announced that the University at Buffalo (UB) Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, The State University of New York, will use IBM technologies and research expertise to study the structure and behavior of human proteins. The outcome of this research could lead to more targeted drugs to treat diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

25 Mar 2004

Study tracks behaviour changes in Alzheimer sufferers

Alzheimer’s sufferers are having their DNA measured and behaviour monitored to pinpoint who is most at risk from developing behaviour problems from dementia.

24 Mar 2004

Design of artificial prion may aid fight against mad cow disease

The culprit behind mad cow disease, a.k.a. bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is the most infamous mammalian form of prions. Prions are misfolded proteins that are capable of growing, replicating, and being passed on to daughter cells, that is, they are by themselves heritable. Beyond their disease manifestation, prions also occur naturally in some organisms (such as yeast) and may play important roles in their growth and development. Now, Osherovich and colleagues have identified the amino acid sequences that allow prions to aggregate and replicate, and thereby pass through generations of cells - and prove this by designing an artificial yeast prion that does not exist in nature.

23 Mar 2004

New Theory About Alzheimer's Disease

A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has proposed a new theory about the cause of Alzheimer's disease, the progressive neurodegenerative disorder that currently afflicts some 4.5 million Americans. According to the hypothesis, the disease arises as a consequence of inflammation, which creates abnormal metabolites out of normal brain molecules.

22 Mar 2004

Cigarette Smoking May Lower Rates of Neurodegenerative Diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's

While the health risks of tobacco are well known, several studies have shown that people with a history of cigarette smoking have lower rates of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. However, the explanations for nicotine's neuroprotective effects continue to be debated.

22 Mar 2004