RESEARCH NEWS 2003-12-16 Research News Despite the complications encountered with vaccines for Alzheimer's disease (see ARF related news story) antibody therapy still has potential as a therapeutic (see ARF related news story and see ARF news story). In the December 3 Bioche
RESEARCH NEWS 2003-12-16 Research News Melatonin does not appear to be useful in helping most Alzheimer's patients achieve a good night's sleep, according to a study in the November issue of the journal Sleep. Almost half the patients with Alzheimer's disease exper
RESEARCH NEWS 2003-12-12 Research News A case report in the December 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine presents an example of the potential dangers of anticholinergic drugs in some patients: short-term memory loss and hallucinations. Anecdotally, many specialists are
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2003-12-09 Conference Coverage If the leery mother-in-law and the cautious would-be employer scrutinize the background of their prospect at hand, AD scientists would be well-advised to do the same. That, at least, is the view of Bruce Lamb at Case Western Reserve Un
RESEARCH NEWS 2003-12-08 Research News The ubiquitin-proteasome system, which operates in almost every eukaryotic cell, has been implicated in the pathogenesis of numerous neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s (AD). So does this pathway ha
RESEARCH NEWS 2003-12-05 Research News The accumulation of protein aggregates is a common theme uniting most major neurodegenerative diseases (see related ARF Live Discussion), but does this phenomenon underscore a common pathogenic mechanism? While many scientists believe this a
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2003-12-05 Conference Coverage A satellite meeting to the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held last month in New Orleans, addressed nicotine and nicotinic receptors, and their potential for Parkinson's disease therapy. Organized by Maryka Q
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2003-12-05 Conference Coverage Two new approaches for modeling neurodegeneration in mice were unveiled at the 33rd Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans. Frank LaFerla ’s group at University of California, Irvine, generated mice in which sele
RESEARCH NEWS 2003-12-04 Research News Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are well-established suspects in aging, atherosclerosis, and neurodegeneration. However, any therapeutic attempts to interfere with these short-lived molecules—which oxidize proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids i
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2003-12-03 Conference Coverage This meeting report is anchored by Kelly Dineley, with individual presentations written by the respective investigators. At the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans, approximately 100 scientists gathered t
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2003-12-03 Conference Coverage By Erene Mina. While modern medicine races into the future, it tends to overlook the possibility that remedies might lie in the past. At the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Anthony Fink and M. Zhu of the University
RESEARCH NEWS 2003-12-03 Research News Is the cycle of life—new lives born even as the old die—to be found in the hippocampus of Alzheimer's patients? A study in this week’s online PNAS suggests just this, and poses the question of whether we could spur newly born neurons to
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2003-12-03 Conference Coverage By Erene Mina. As evidence mounts against oligomers as culprits of Aβ neurotoxicity (see ARF related New Orleans story), their only defense hinges on the possibility that they may have some normal physiological function—even a slightly
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2003-12-03 Conference Coverage Notwithstanding some redeeming features (ARF related New Orleans story) soluble Aβ oligomers have an overwhelmingly bad reputation as suspected mediators of synaptic dysfunction in Alzheimer’s. A number of accusing fingers have pointed
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2003-11-26 Conference Coverage Many academic scientists find news about industry research hard to find. It travels by word of mouth, formal publications appear late, if ever. This is true of γ-secretase inhibitors, which for a while were prime candidates for the nex