What causes Alzheimer’s disease? The answer could be right under our noses, says leading expert Professor Ruth Itzhaki. Her latest paper presents a lifetime of research evidence that the herpes virus responsible for cold sores can also cause Alzheimer’s — and new data which show antiviral drugs drastically reduce risk of senile dementia in patients […]
Pre-eclampsia is associated with an increased risk of later dementia, particularly vascular dementia, caused by reduced blood supply to the brain due to diseased blood vessels, finds a large study published by The BMJ today. The findings suggest that asking about a history of pre-eclampsia could help physicians to identify women who might benefit from […]
A group of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators is proposing that targeting immune checkpoints — molecules that regulate the activity of the immune system — in immune cells called microglia could reduce the inflammatory aspects of important neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In their review article published in […]
For older adults, it may seem as though the die is already cast regarding their odds of developing dementia, but new research from the University of Pittsburgh has identified a dementia risk factor among older adults that should be modifiable even well into old age. The study, which draws on data collected from following hundreds […]
Environmental scientists argue that societies should embrace population aging and decrease in an opinion appearing October 16 in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution. They cite multiple reports of the socioeconomic and environmental benefits of population aging, mortality-related decrease, and shrinking workforces due to retirement and maintain that, contrary to some economic analyses, costs […]
Normally, the blood protein fibrin does not enter the brain. But in several neurological disorders, the blood-brain barrier — which keeps large molecules in the blood from entering the brain — becomes abnormally permeable, allowing fibrin to leak into the brain and trigger inflammation. Emerging evidence points to a leaky blood-brain barrier as an early […]
Researchers have taken an important step toward what may become a new approach to restore the hearing loss. In a new study, out today in the European Journal of Neuroscience, scientists have been able to regrow the sensory hair cells found in the cochlea — a part of the inner ear — that converts sound […]
Only a small proportion of cases of dementia are thought to be inherited — the cause of the vast majority is unknown. Now, in a study published today in the journal Nature Communications, a team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Cambridge believe they may have found an explanation: spontaneous errors in […]
In a breakthrough human study, anti-oxidant, glutathione (GSH), which protects the brain from stress, has been found to be significantly depleted in Alzheimer’s patients compared to normal subjects. As GSH is a very important anti-oxidant that protects the brain from free radicals, the findings give us another measure to use when diagnosing potential for the […]
The brain creates a map of our environment, which enables reliable spatial navigation. The Nobel Prize was awarded in 2014 for research into how this navigation system works at the cellular level. Researchers at the Medical Center — University of Freiburg, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have now shown that […]
