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Could Longevity Factor, Epilepsy Med, Treat AD One Day?
14 May 2013. At a San Francisco conference addressing Alzheimer’s and related disorders, the agenda featured a diverse mix of topics—occasionally even from the same lab...
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Paracrine Signal From BACE1-Clipped Neuregulin Rescues Myelin
13 May 2013. As β-secretase inhibitors head into Alzheimer’s disease trials, researchers are paying close attention to what else BACE1 does besides snip amyloid-β from APP...
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Endocytosis Pulls α-Secretase From Synapses
13 May 2013. Scientists report that endocytosis whisks α-secretase away from the cell membrane in a process that seems regulated by neuronal activity...
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Guidelines at Nature Aim to Stem Tide of Irreproducibility
10 May 2013. It has become a complaint heard all too often—much academic research cannot be reproduced...
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GO TO ALL RESEARCH NEWS  |
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In the spotlight
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Neurodegeneration Workshop Explores New Treatment Strategies
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how to move scientific discoveries from the lab bench to the clinic. Multifactorial diseases such as AD likely "cannot be conquered by a single approach or drug," said Lennart Mucke of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, San Francisco, who co-organized the meeting with Pierluigi Nicotera of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease. Over the coming days, read Esther Landhuis' highlights, which cover new functions for BACE, novel therapeutic approaches centered around ubiquitination, acetylation, stress response pathways, and a longevity gene. Image courtesy of Lennart Mucke
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Can Aβ in the Lens Help Diagnose Alzheimer's?
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 See an AD diagnostic? |
In 2003, a research study held out the tantalizing prospect of a diagnostic test for Alzheimer's based on Aβ deposits in a type of cataract in the lens of the human eye. In the decade since, no independent replication has been published, but now scientists in Spain report that they were unable to detect Aβ in a sample of human lenses. At the same time, academic clinicians and a |
biotech company are gearing up for separate, clinical trials of Aβ-based diagnostic methods. Read Madolyn Rogers' attempt to clear up the cloudy field of Alzheimer's eye-based diagnostics. Read the full story. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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Criminal Minds: Explaining Lack of Empathy in Psychopathy
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 Eliciting empathy |
Ouch! Some pictures make just about anyone cringe. Not people with psychopathic tendencies, though, who experience little or no empathy for others in dire straits. A new brain imaging study helps explain why. Neurons in parts of the brain responsible for emotion fire poorly when psychopaths see someone in pain, according to the research. |
The findings, based on prisoners with psychopathy, may help scientists understand some neurodegenerative diseases. People with frontotemporal dementia often exhibit lack of empathy, and may have defects in the same brain areas. Read the full story. Image courtesy of Jean Decety, University of Chicago, Illinois
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Transplanted Inhibitory Neurons Control Seizures in Mice
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 Grafted inhibitory
neurons (green) |
Neural precursors injected into the dorsal hippocampus develop into inhibitory neurons that quell seizures and reduce cognitive deficits in epileptic mice, according to a new study. Such therapies for humans are a long way off, |
and the implications for other disorders marked by inhibitory neuron dysfunction, including Alzheimer’s disease, are unclear. Nevertheless, researchers hailed this finding as an encouraging breakthrough. Read the full story. Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Neuroscience (c) 2013.
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Webinar: Can Network Analysis Explain Alzheimer’s?
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 AD-specific molecular networks |
Though common genetic polymorphisms have been linked to Alzheimer's disease, scientists struggle to explain exactly how those variations influence biological function. Can network analysis help? In a complex disease such as AD, genetic and non-genetic factors conspire to disrupt biological pathways and processes. Identifying those disturbances could shed light on how risk genes cause disease. In the April 25 Cell, Valur Emilsson at the Icelandic Heart |
Association, with Eric Schadt at Mount Sinai, New York, report that they have identified molecular networks that associate with AD. Several contain known suspects, such as the microglial receptor TREM2 and the immunoglobulin-like CD33. They finger a new player, TYROBP, as a regulator of those network modules. The AD brain overproduces TYROBP and, intriguingly, it binds TREM2, and lies upstream of CD33. Lo and behold, on the same day in Neuron, researchers led by Rudy Tanzi and Ana Griciuc at Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, report that microglia in the AD brain make more CD33 and that it hampers their ability to clear amyloid-β.
Join us for an Alzforum Webinar on Thursday, 23 May 2013 at 12:00 noon, U.S. Eastern time. Eric Schadt and Ana Griciuc will present their latest data and discuss them with Monica Carson, University of California, Riverside; John Hardy, University College London; and Jeremy Miller, Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, Washington. Image courtesy of Cell Press.
We thank Cell Press for giving Alzforum readers temporary free access to these papers.
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What's New
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Comments - Posted 14 May 2013
Read remarks by Diana Shineman
NEWS: Guidelines at Nature Aim to Stem Tide of Irreproducibility |
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Comments - Posted 14 May 2013
Read remarks by David Small
NEWS: Guidelines at Nature Aim to Stem Tide of Irreproducibility |
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Comments - Posted 13 May 2013
Read remarks by Ben Barres about
Benner EJ et al.
NEWS: Newborn Healers—Novel Astrocytes Repair Brain Injury |
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Comments - Posted 13 May 2013
Read remarks by Michael T. Heneka about Zhang G et al.
PAPER: Hypothalamic programming of systemic ageing involving IKK-β, NF-κB and GnRH. |
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Comments - Posted 13 May 2013
Read remarks by Charles Duyckaerts about
Marcello E et al.
NEWS: Endocytosis Pulls α-Secretase From Synapses |
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Comments - Posted 13 May 2013
Read remarks by Paul Saftig about
Marcello E et al.
NEWS: Endocytosis Pulls α-Secretase From Synapses |
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Comments - Posted 13 May 2013
Read remarks by John Cirrito about
Marcello E et al.
NEWS: Endocytosis Pulls α-Secretase From Synapses |
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Comments - Posted 10 May 2013
Read remarks by Sanjay W. Pimplikar
NEWS: Gammagard™ Misses Endpoints in Phase 3 Trial |
SEE MORE |
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