RESEARCH NEWS 2004-05-14 Research News Stunted dendritic arbors in a subpopulation of hippocampal granule cells are an early sign of Aβ-induced damage, according to a new study of transgenic PDAPP mice in the May 4 PNAS. The authors suggest that this pathology, which pre-dates am
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-05-13 Research News Evidence linking mitochondrial oxidative stress with neurodegeneration has been pouring forth lately (see, for example, ARF related news on Parkinson’s, ARF related news story and ARF related story). But news of novel mechanisms to prevent d
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-05-10 Research News Despite the vastly heterogeneous nature of mammalian brains, researchers are pressing on with gene profiling experiments aimed at identifying potential risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Two such
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-05-10 Research News Last week, both ends of the nerve growth factor (NGF) research spectrum advanced by a step. On its fundamental science, an article in Science describes the crystal complex of NGF with one of its receptors, p75, while on the applied front, th
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-05-06 Research News If aggregates of the sticky amyloid-β can contribute to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), then maybe unsticking them will help reverse the process. Far-fetched? Luigi Bergamaschini and colleagues have already demonstrated that antic
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-05-01 Research News Just when many stem cell researchers had given up the ghost on the potential for adult stem cells to transdifferentiate into cells of other lineages, along comes new data to rekindle the debate. Reporting in tomorrow’s Lancet, Edward Scott a
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-04-22 Research News The clamp, the boot, whatever you call it, if you find one on your car you’ll appreciate how a seemingly small attachment can keep its wheels from turning. In today’s Sciencexpress, Ted and Valina Dawson and colleagues at Johns Hopkins Unive
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-04-22 Research News Do solitary Aβ peptides begin their journey toward insoluble plaques by meeting up with partners on lipid rafts in the plasma membrane? Steve Younkin and colleagues report evidence that, in an APP-transgenic mouse model, Aβ dimerizes in the
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-04-22 Research News Priming the immune system to recognize and clear endogenous antigens from the nervous system has always been a controversial therapeutic strategy. We only have to look to clinical trials of Elan’s Aβ vaccine to see how it can go wrong (see A
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-04-16 Research News The Aβ-binding alcohol dehydrogenase (ABAD) forms a complex with Aβ in mitochondria, promoting leakage of free radicals, mitochondrial dysfunction, and cell death, according to a combined structure/function and animal study to be published i
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-04-16 Research News Designed to speed transport and communication, bridges may also be useful for slowing disease. Peter Lansbury and Soumya Ray of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, suggest as much in this week’s early online PNAS in their review of one pro
CONFERENCE COVERAGE 2004-04-16 Conference Coverage Last month, the commercial conference planner IBC Screentech held a conference on drug development approaches in neurodegeneration in San Diego, California, as part of its World Summit series. Dora Kovacs, of Massachusetts General Hosp
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-04-15 Research News Mutations in Pink1, a gene coding for a mitochondrial protein kinase, has just been fingered as a genetic cause for parkinsonism. In today’s Sciencexpress, Nicholas Wood from the Institute of Neurology, London, together with a host of collab
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-04-12 Research News Anyone who has minced beef knows that the grinder occasionally gets clogged by a particularly tough bit of meat or gristle. Polyglutamine (polyQ) stretches, it turns out, may have a similar effect on our intracellular protein grinder, the pr
RESEARCH NEWS 2004-04-12 Research News When it comes to the biological activity of Aβ, a question often pondered is: How much is enough? In the March 31 Journal of Neuroscience, Barry Festoff and colleagues suggest that the answer may be: Not that much. Festoff, from the Veterans