Alzheimer's Disease News and Research

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks of daily living. In most people with AD, symptoms first appear after age 60. AD is the most common cause of dementia among older people, but it is not a normal part of aging. Dementia refers to a decline in cognitive function that interferes with daily life and activities. AD starts in a region of the brain that affects recent memory, then gradually spreads to other parts of the brain. Although treatment can slow the progression of AD and help manage its symptoms in some people, currently there is no cure for this devastating disease.

Researchers establish and characterize a stable iPSC line for modeling human disease

Bill Skarnes and team established and characterized a stable iPSC line, KOLF2.1J, to act as a high-quality baseline platform for modeling human disease.

3 Feb 2023

Exploring how smoking cannabis alters the oral microbiome and its impact on the brain

Inspiration strikes when you least expect it. For Wei Jiang, M.D., a professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), inspiration came in 2018 on a smoke-filled boat tour around Amsterdam during an international conference.

30 Jan 2023

New technologies reveal cross-cutting breakdowns in Alzheimer’s disease

A figure from the paper depicts pathways perturbed in Alzheimer's disease. Below examples are listed for each pathway by major brain cell type. Image Credit: The Picower Institute.

4 Jan 2023

UCLA researchers receive NIH award to develop next-generation versions of miniature microscope

The UCLA creators of a miniature microscope that can be mounted on the heads of lab animals to provide an invaluable view into the brain's inner workings have received a $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop next-generation versions of their "miniscope."

9 Aug 2022

New method can identify the vast number of molecules derived from food

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at University of California San Diego, report a new method called untargeted metabolomics to identify the vast number of molecules derived from food that were previously unidentified, but that appear in our blood and our stool.

From UC San Diego 11 Jul 2022

Positive social interactions associated with purposefulness in older adults

Having positive social interactions is associated with older adults' sense of purposefulness, which can fluctuate from day to day, according to research from the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

7 Jul 2022

New biomedical research tool may help advance molecular diagnostics and drug discovery

A new biomedical research tool that enables scientists to measure hundreds of functional proteins in a single cell could offer new insights into cell machinery.

30 Jun 2022

Understanding the regulation of intramembrane proteases across the tree of life

Working with tiny bacteria, Michigan State University researchers led by Lee Kroos have made a discovery that could have big implications for biology.

27 Apr 2022

Researchers shed light on development and treatment of brain diseases

It is highly regulated what goes into the brain and what does not. The phagocytes that encapsulate the blood arteries in the brain and maintain the blood-brain barrier have been examined by researchers at the University of Freiburg’s Faculty of Medicine.

25 Apr 2022

Researchers analyze single-cell DNA sequencing for having a significant role in Alzheimer’s disease

The loss of functional neurons in the brain is a characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. What, on the other hand, is the source of this loss?

21 Apr 2022

Mice study explains why humans expressing CHT gene variant exhibit attentional vulnerabilities

Mutant mice are providing scientists with a new neurobiological framework to understand the brain changes observed in distractible humans who carry a common gene variant whose frequency has been associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

8 Apr 2022

New technique helps rewind the cellular biological clock by around 30 years

Research from the Babraham Institute has developed a method to 'time jump' human skin cells by 30 years, turning back the aging clock for cells without losing their specialized function.

8 Apr 2022

Study sheds light on genetic causes of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias

If we want to enhance our knowledge and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, we need to identify genetic risk factors.

7 Apr 2022

Researchers discover 15 genetic 'hotspots' that speed up or slow down brain aging

Researchers from a USC-led consortium have discovered 15 "hotspots" in the genome that either speed up brain aging or slow it down -; a finding that could provide new drug targets to resist Alzheimer's disease and other degenerative brain disorders, as well as developmental delays.

6 Apr 2022

Understanding how cleaning up bad mitochondria affects stem cell division

Most of us remember enough biology to recall that mitochondria are known as "the powerhouse of the cell." Even that audacious term may downplay the importance of mitochondria and what happens when mitochondria go bad.

1 Apr 2022

Insight into oligodendrocyte cells could lead to new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases

New research may help scientists locate immature cells in the central nervous system that could shed light on the causes of neurodegenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis-;and autoimmune disease that affects the brain and nervous system-;and allow for the development of better therapeutic treatments.

14 Mar 2022

Astrocyte networks are essential for spatial learning and memory formation, study shows

Astrocytes form large networks of interconnected cells in the central nervous system. When these cell-to-cell couplings are disrupted in the brain of adult mice, the animals are no longer able to store spatial information.

9 Mar 2022

Study identifies two types of brain cells that play a key role in creating memories

In a study led by Cedars-Sinai, researchers have discovered two types of brain cells that play a key role in dividing continuous human experience into distinct segments that can be recalled later.

8 Mar 2022

Research points to a common thread linking diverse neurodegenerative diseases

Take a cell-deep tour of a brain afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, and you will find minuscule clumps of protein that seem suspicious. Ever since the 1980s, when neuroscientists began identifying these protein tangles, researchers have discovered that other brain diseases have their own tangled-protein signatures.

7 Mar 2022

Novel molecular pathway shared by ALS and frontotemporal dementia identified

Scientists from two independent research teams have discovered how the mislocalization of a protein, known as TDP-43, alters the genetic instructions for UNC13A, providing a possible therapeutic target that could also have implications in treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and other forms of dementia.

1 Mar 2022