Scientists have long puzzled over the following conundrum: If the activity of a protein solution drops by half, have half the molecules completely lost activity, or have all the proteins lost half their activity? The answer, most likely, is that...
Presenilin, the enzyme that proteolytically cleaves amyloid-β precursor protein (APP) and Notch, also processes the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR)...
Neuritic plaques are classic, obvious markers of Alzheimer’s disease, but it is a puzzle why their density is a poor predictor of disease symptoms. Recently, scientists have come to suspect that soluble oligomeric, not fibrillary, β, may be the culprit in synaptic degeneration in AD...
If the old saying that elephants never forget is true, then it may be because in mammals, synaptic branches laid down in early life are stable into middle age...
In this week's Nature Medicine, researchers reveal that glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a product of proglucagon processing, may have an important role in learning and neuroprotection...
This week's PNAS early online edition reports that, depending on the diet, even minor amounts of copper can lead to both amyloid plaques and a memory deficit in rabbits...
Some diseases, such as familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD), arise from a mutation in a single gene. In sporadic AD, however, complex interactions among multiple genes underlie the phenotype, and under these circumstances...
Reporting in Science, Fred Gage and colleagues reveal that they can delay the progression of ALS and prolong life in mouse models by delivering appropriate growth stimuli to neurons in the central nervous system...
Contentions that activation of the cell cycle and apoptosis at least partly underlie the neurodegeneration seen in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have slowly gained experimental support. Now, a report in the July 30 Journal of Neuroscience suggests that...
The prolyl isomerase Pin1 protects against tau-mediated, age-dependent neurodegeneration, according to a study in the July 31 Nature. Kun Ping Lu, at Harvard Medical School, and his colleagues combine human postmortem data in AD brains with a Pin1 knockout mouse...
Despite evidence that NSAIDS do little to help those already suffering from Alzheimer's disease, a report in the British Medical Journal supports the contention that they may stave off Alzheimer’s, or at least slow its progression...
Bored with the same old foods you tend to eat? Consider adding more fish and some specific plant products. Two recent studies suggest that not only would this liven up your diet, but it might also lower risk of developing...
Parkinson's patients who take medications that block muscarinic cholinergic receptors have increased amyloid plaque and neurofibrillary tangle pathology, according to an article by Elaine Perry of the Newcastle General...
In the July 8 issue of Current Biology, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Kyoto University, Japan, reveal that mice carrying a mutated version of the Notch gene suffer from spatial learning and memory defects...
It’s getting hot around calcium. A trend is afoot about something going awry with calcium regulation in Alzheimer neurons, and it makes this ion an increasingly attractive suspect in AD pathogenesis, even if important details remain murky...