23andMe sells people information about their Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s risk. They include tricky-to-interpret raw data on dozens of disease genes. Should such direct-to-consumer testing companies offer better counselling and referral?
At a conference in Heidelberg, researchers proposed that Aβ oligomers trigger local translation of tau in cytosol and dendrites, and that targeting this aberrant tau may preserve synapses.
The prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy supports a link between multiple concussions and this degenerative tauopathy, though the sample is self-selected.
At AAIC, researchers debuted a method that detects changes in plasma Aβ42 in people with brain amyloid. If confirmed, a widely available screening test for presymptomatic AD could follow.
Finally, a Blood Test for Alzheimer’s? In Clinical Use, Amyloid Scans Change Two-Thirds of Treatment Plans Searching for New AD Risk Variants? Move Beyond GWAS Monomeric Seeds and Oligomeric Clouds—Proteopathy News from AAIC Planning the First Primary Pre
Markers of necroptosis peppered postmortem brain tissue from people with AD. Gene expression implicates RIP kinases. Could shuttering this cell death pathway save neurons?
One report implicates APP’s intracellular domain in neuron loss due to LRRK2; another accuses the AICD fragment of regulating mitochondrial dynamics via Pink-1.
FUS proteins tend to link up and form liquid droplets and, from those, aggregates. Phosphorylation of the protein’s low-complexity domain repels these associations.
High-throughput sequencing yields surprises. Learn about pathogenic variants in endosomal genes, an algorithm to nab the worst SORL1 mutations, dominant PS1 mutations arising de novo, and tau duplications.
Researchers at AAIC reinforced the idea that tau pathology drives cognitive decline, although amyloid plaques were implicated in semantic memory deficits.
Injecting a piece of this anti-aging protein days before memory testing improved performance in mice young and old, as well as those that overexpress α-synuclein.