Gothenburg researchers have discovered a previously unknown substance in spinal fluid that can be used to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. The findings, described in a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, will also be useful in research on new medications. [continue reading…]
Alzheimers
Following on from yesterdays post about the discovery of 2 new genes associated with Alzheimers. Today’s New Scientist features the article New look at Alzheimer’s could revolutionize treatment.
Alzheimer’s has long been blamed on the fatty amyloid plaques that accumulate in the brain, but recent clinical trials suggest other processes may be at work.
Last year, Clive Holmes and his colleagues at the University of Southampton, UK, examined the brains of dead patients who’d received a vaccine that primes the immune system to attack amyloid plaques. Although the plaques had gone in most patients, in life their symptoms hadn’t diminished (The Lancet, vol 372, p 216).
Also disappointing was the performance of tarenflurbil (Flurizan), a drug designed to attack plaques. Myriad Genetics of Salt Lake City, Utah, announced last year that it was suspending the $200 million trial of the drug, the largest ever of an Alzheimer’s treatment, after it failed to deliver significant improvements in memory, cognition or people’s ability to care for themselves. Meanwhile, drugs targeting other processes have shown success. The most tantalising news comes from trials of dimebolin, a hayfever treatment developed decades ago in Russia. Results from a trial published last year in The Lancet (vol 372, p 207) showed that patients taking the drug scored 7 points higher in standard tests of cognitive abilities compared with those on placebo, a substantial improvement on a scale of 70. As hay fever is caused by the body’s inflammation process going awry, this result chimes with gene and hospital studies published this week that suggest inflammation plays a role in Alzheimer’s (see main story) Read full article
Source: New Scientist
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The discovery of two new genes associated with Alzheimer’s disease could provide valuable new leads in the race to find treatments and possibly cures for the devastating condition, according to a leading University scientist.
Professor Julie Williams, School of Medicine, has completed the largest-ever joint Alzheimer’s disease genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 16,000 individuals.
The study, published in Nature Genetics, uncovered two new genes associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Previously only one gene, APOE4, had been shown to be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.
The study reveals, for the first time, that two further genes, CLU and PICALM, are related to Alzheimer’s disease. [continue reading…]
A drug now used to treat cancer may also be able to restore memory deficits in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study conducted by scientists at Columbia University Medical Center, which appeared in the September issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease: Volume 18:1.
The loss of short, day-to-day memories is often the first sign of Alzheimer’s – a disease that is expected, by the year 2050, to afflict 120 million people worldwide. [continue reading…]
