CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2007-04-05 Conference Coverage The 8th International Conference AD/PD 2007, held 14-18 March in Salzburg, Austria, offered a good opportunity for scientists at large to get up to speed on progranulin, the growth factor whose gene on chromosome 17 is quickly proving
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2007-04-04 Conference Coverage The science of frontotemporal dementias generated perhaps the loudest buzz at the 8th International Conference AD/PD 2007, held 14-18 March in Salzburg, Austria. The excitement grew out of last year’s twin discoveries that mutations in
RESEARCH NEWS 2007-04-02 Research News When amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides get together, the trouble starts. A conformational change in Aβ, followed by its aggregation into toxic clumps, is a central event in the development of Alzheimer disease. Three papers this week look at chaperone
RESEARCH NEWS 2007-03-31 Research News In neurons, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) regulates a variety of signal transduction pathways, including those involved in long-term memory and survival, so anything that modulates MAPK signaling could have important consequences f
RESEARCH NEWS 2007-03-31 Research News Excitotoxic cell death, the end for many cells after ischemic brain injury and in some neurodegenerative diseases, is triggered by glutamate-induced calcium influx. Downstream, activation of the p38α map kinase leads to apoptosis, but just h
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2007-03-29 Conference Coverage Every other year, Abraham Fisher of the Israel Institute for Biological Research in Ness-Ziona, and Israel Hanin of Loyola University in Maywood, Illinois, team up with two local scientists from a different European country to host an
RESEARCH NEWS 2007-03-27 Research News The first rule of triage is do no harm, but try telling that to microglia. Though these cellular paramedics may be invaluable first responders to pathological damage in the brain, including accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ), there is increasing
RESEARCH NEWS 2007-03-24 Research News They may only tip the scales at a measly 15 grams per mole, but methyl groups carry considerable weight when added to larger macromolecules such as nucleic acids and protein—methylation silences gene expression and can dramatically alter pro
RESEARCH NEWS 2007-03-23 Research News Researchers have published the first postmortem confirmation of amyloid pathology corresponding to a positive PET scan using the amyloid tracer Pittsburg Compound B (PIB). In the March issue of Archives of Neurology, Brian Bacskai and collea
RESEARCH NEWS 2007-03-17 Research News Much hope rides on the diagnostic and prognostic ability of biomarkers, exemplified by three papers in the March Archives of Neurology. But such measures may also have other uses. Alison Goate and colleagues at Washington University School o
RESEARCH NEWS 2007-03-17 Research News It is a lot to ask of transplanted neuronal stem cells to morph into functional neurons and insinuate themselves in exactly the right place to rebuild broken brain circuitry. However, the bar for therapeutic efficacy may not be so high. A st
RESEARCH NEWS 2007-03-15 Research News Two new publications add to growing evidence that toxic Aβ oligomers play havoc with neurons by interfering with N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-type glutamate receptors (NMDARs) and Ca2+ flow, but they suggest different toxic mechanisms. The fi
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2007-03-13 Conference Coverage William Frey of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis believes in the BBB. Rather than dealing with the pesky obstacle, though, he’s trying an end run around it. His route of choice is the nose, where his work suggests one gains a
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2007-03-12 Conference Coverage When it comes to treating AD and other brain diseases, there is always something standing between the therapeutic pill and the cells needing help. That something is the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and it is a killing field of many a pro