Two epigenetic proteins accelerated age-related behavioral decline in worms and in mice, at least partly by dampening mitochondrial function. Orthologs in the human brain ramped up with aging and with AD progression.
In motor neurons of TMEM106b knockout mice, swollen vacuoles piled up in axons near the soma, rendering the mice wobbly and slow to react. The finding contradicts prior reports.
Different forms of p-tau in cerebrospinal fluid reflect worsening plaque load, metabolism, and atrophy in the brain. They could help stage Alzheimer’s disease.
In people with Alzheimer’s biomarkers, the basal forebrain shrinks early, foreshadowing microglial neurotoxicity, atrophy in the medial temporal lobe, and cognitive decline.
For people with Parkinson’s, carrying Alzheimer’s genetic risk variants upped their odds of harboring Aβ and tau pathology and getting dementia. In people with DLB, Aβ plaques worsened tau and Lewy pathology, and cognition.
Award recognizes discoveries of genetic variants that perturb liquid-liquid phase separation and increase risk for ALS-FTD and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Umbilical cord stem cells from presenilin 1 E280A carriers, once differentiated into cholinergic-like neurons, pumped out Aβ42 and accumulated phosphorylated tau and apoptotic markers.
New research suggests the R47H variant protects neurons from neurodegeneration, raising questions about staging and direction of future TREM2-based therapy.
By suppressing a single gene, scientists triggered the transformation of astrocytes into neurons in the mouse substantia nigra, where the converts released dopamine and connected with the striatum.