The September 21 online Nature Neuroscience reports that the serine-threonine kinase Cdk5, which is known to phosphorylate the neurofibrillary tangle protein tau, is essential for ischemia-provoked death of hippocampal CA1 neurons...
Brian Bacskai and colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, and Bill Klunk and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, show that they can image the uptake, labeling of amyloid plaques, and subsequent release of the thioflavin derivative Pittsburgh compound B (PIB)...
A new study adds support to the theory that a critical first step in the production of the Aβ peptide by the BACE enzyme occurs primarily in specialized, cholesterol-rich areas of the plasma membrane called "lipid rafts"...
A novel public-private consortium designed to combat Alzheimer’s disease by supporting the development of new animal models is seeking grant applications from scientists at universities and
The Food and Drug Administration’s advisory committee on peripheral and central nervous system drugs yesterday narrowly recommended that the FDA approve memantine for advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease...
The ratio of phosphorylated tau (p-tau) to β-amyloid (Aβ) in the cerebrospinal fluid improves the ability to distinguish clinically defined Alzheimer's patients from normal subjects, according to a study...
Acetylcholinesterase (AChE), best known for hydrolyzing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, is also found in the amyloid plaques that plague the brains of Alzheimer's patients. What part this protein has in progression of AD is unclear, but papers suggest...
Two similar studies funded by Eisai and Pfizer companies, the developer and US-promoter of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor drug donepezil, suggest that their drug, already widely used for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, may also relieve symptoms of patients with vascular dementia...
Could biopsy of olfactory epithelium yield early warnings of Alzheimer's disease (AD)? This possibility was raised by George Perry and colleagues who report that oxidative damage to olfactory neurons could be a harbinger of impending AD...
Prions, those self-replicating proteins responsible for scrapie, mad cow disease, and some human neurologic diseases, have been notoriously difficult to pin down in the cell. Now, an international collaboration reports perhaps the most detailed localization study to date...
The scientist who helped discover one of the few drugs currently approved for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease has received the $100,000 Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Award for 2003...
Hope that thiazolidinedione agonists of PPARγ will prove beneficial for Alzheimer's patients (see <a href="/res/for/journal/galea/default.asp">ARF recent live discussion</a>) may be tempered slightly by a report...
Enabling Technologies 2003 Workshop Summary Recommendations: A Report from Bar Harbor 2003 Enabling Technologies for Alzheimer Disease Research: 2003 Bar Harbor Workshop
The first day of Enabling Technologies 2003 focused on the natural history of Alzheimer's disease, fundamental cell biology, and mechanisms of neurodegeneration.