Alzforum News

In-Vitro Innervation: Stem Cell-Derived Motor Neurons Meet Muscles

16 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Scientists have made strides turning stem cells into motor neurons, but a motor neuron is useful only when it innervates a muscle...

Q&A With Genentech Lead Scientist on API Trial Ryan Watts

16 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Ryan Watts of Genentech is the founding research scientist on the clinical trial collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative...

NIH Director Announces $100M Prevention Trial of Genentech Antibody

16 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Francis Collins announced that $16 million of federal funds would go toward the first-ever therapeutic prevention trial in cognitively healthy people...

DIAN: What Sayeth the Regulator? Q&A With Rusty Katz

15 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

When the DIAN convened its Pharma Consortium, its scientists intended to brief the Food and Drug Administration on how far DIAN’s work has advanced to date...

Mind Over Matter: Psychology Affects AD Risk, Cognitive Reserve

14 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Can your state of mind affect your risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease? Perhaps so...

DIAN Grows, Gets Ready for Therapeutic Trials

14 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

The Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network Pharma Consortium met in Washington, D.C., to exchange the latest information on DIAN’s preparation for therapeutic trials...

Aβ42 Oligomers Block Cholesterol Synthesis, Protein Prenylation

11 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

With statins doing wonders for Alzheimer’s mice and apolipoprotein E as the top risk gene, links between cholesterol and Alzheimer’s presumably run deep...

Deep-Brain Stimulation Improves Connectivity in AD

11 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Deep-brain stimulation (DBS) has become widely used for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, and researchers are now hoping to use it for other diseases, including AD...

Research Brief: Robots Trained in Patch-Clamp Experiments

11 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Researchers report that they programmed a robot arm to slide a pipette through tissue, checking for cells near its tip along the way until it finds one to patch and analyze...

Me, Too: Florbetaben, Flutemetamol Look Good in Trial

11 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Results of a multicenter Phase 3 autopsy trial suggest the PET tracer florbetaben accurately images plaques and may prove useful for diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease...

Keystone: Diagnosis and Model Treatments for Traumatic Brain Injury

10 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Identifying injuries that might lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy or other neurodegenerative pathologies, and then treating those injuries, are two major challenges...

Keystone: TBI—Learning From Markers, Models, and Diseases

9 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Injury to the brain, even what might be considered mild, can have devastating consequences on brain physiology...

Epilepsy Drug Calms the Hippocampus, Aids Memory

9 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Research suggests that the hippocampus goes into overdrive in people who may be on the path to Alzheimer's disease...

Research Brief: Total Activity, Not Just Exercise, Keeps Mind Sharp

8 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Although a growing number of studies suggest that exercise can perhaps ward off dementia, only a couple of those studies have included objective measures of activity...

Keystone: Metabolic and Axonal Dysfunction in Traumatic Brain Injury

8 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

There is now convincing evidence that traumatic brain injury can lead to pathologies, including deposition of Aβ, that are akin to those seen in certain neurodegenerative disorders...

Muscle Therapy Pumps Up ALS Mice, But No Survival Benefit

8 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Keeping muscles strong and active in a mouse model of ALS allows the animals to perform better in the face of dwindling motor neuron input, but ultimately cannot slow their demise...

Keystone: Sports-Related Injury and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

7 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Increasingly, sports-related head injuries, which can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, are seen as a major public health concern...

Pyromania: PyroGluAβ Toxicity is Prion-Like, Depends on Tau

7 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Researchers report that a highly neurotoxic, pyroglutamylated form of Aβ acts as a “bad seed,” corrupting normal peptide...

Court Ruling Sinks APPswe Patent Suit Claims

4 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

In a potential victory for AD research, a federal court ruling knocked the wind out of patent litigation that has long scuttled distribution of APPswe mice...

Keystone: Traumatic Brain Injury—Epidemiology and Characteristics

4 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Over the last decade, scientists have realized that brain injury can precipitate similar pathologies to those found in people with neurodegenerative conditions...

Needs Salt: Reduced Sodium Channel Linked to Seizures in AD Model

2 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Epilepsy-like seizures—though they may be hard to detect—turn up in some people with AD and in transgenic mouse models of the disease...

News Brief: Awards Honor Christopher Shaw, Remember Richard Olney

2 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

Christopher Shaw received the Sheila Essey Award 24 April at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana...

RNA Processors Turn Up in Another Motor Neuron Disease

2 May 2012 00:00:00 EST

If there is one thing motor neurons cannot handle, it seems to be perturbations to their RNA machinery...

Imaging Inflammation: Can Glial PET Tracers Make a Mark?

27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EST

The burgeoning proliferation in glia during neuroinflammation could indicate disease course and the efficacy of potential medicines...

In Mice, Oxidative Changes Come Early and Antioxidants Work

27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EST

Synapses go haywire long before people with Alzheimer’s disease suspect problems with their memory, but what primes neurons for synaptic dysfunction in the first place?...

Synthetic Synuclein Corrupts Native Along Mouse Brain Networks

26 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EST

A few micrograms of pure, synthetic, aggregated α-synuclein is all it takes to corrupt normal protein in the brain...

News Brief: Sebelius Gives Report on U.S. Alzheimer's Plan

25 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EST

Yesterday, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius gave a status report on the National Alzheimer's Plan...

Biomarker Duo Signals Mental Decline

24 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EST

Increasingly, upcoming trials for Alzheimer's therapeutics will target prevention—seeing whether drugs can stave off the disease before it takes hold...

GWAS and Anatomy—Pooled Data Finger Genes Driving Brain Size, IQ

20 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EST

Scientists have begun hunting for genes influencing brain features that associate with disease risk but can be measured years before symptoms crop up...

Evidence Links Aging, Oxidative Stress, and AD Pathology

19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EST

Aging trumps everything as a risk factor for sporadic AD, but after decades of study, researchers are still unclear why. One theory blames accumulating oxidative damage...

Research Brief: Bead-Based Biomarkers Neatly Divide AD, FTLD

18 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EST

The total tau to amyloid-β42 ratio from cerebrospinal fluid reliably distinguishes Alzheimer’s disease from frontotemporal degeneration...

Alzheimer's Challenge 2012 Finalists Announced

18 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EST

Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy and Pfizer, Inc., together with the Geoffrey Beene Gives Back® Alzheimer’s Initiative, announced five finalists for the Alzheimer's Challenge 2012...

SOS: Motor Neurons Send Angiogenin Cry for Help to Astroglia

16 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EST

Floundering motor neurons rely on a support network for help, and they send out a distress call to astroglia in the form of angiogenin...

Good Prion, Bad Prion: TDP-43 Domain Plays Both Sides

13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EST

What do prion-like proteins do when not converting neighbors to dangerous conformations? One of them helps stabilize functional protein complexes...

Glutamate Receptor Blockers Reverse Fragile X Symptoms in Mice

13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 EST

Because neurons are postmitotic—unable to divide or regenerate once formed in the brain—scientists long believed that neurodevelopmental diseases were irreversible...