RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-29 Research News How alike are familial and sporadic Alzheimer’s? It depends. Broadly speaking, in terms of their presymptomatic biomarker changes, the two resemble each other closely (see Feb 2024 news). In terms of what goes on inside affected cells, thing
RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-29 Research News In the more than a decade since scientists at Washington University and the Mayo Clinic first proposed the now well-known curves of biomarker change over the course of Alzheimer's disease, researchers have filled in this framework with
RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-29 Research News TDP-43 leads a varied life, interacting with a host of different RNAs and proteins as it shuttles from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and back. This offers this RNA-binding protein plenty of opportunities to take up with the wrong crowd. Case
RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-27 Research News How does a good night’s sleep re-energize the brain? At least in fruit flies, by burning damaged lipids. So claim scientists led by Amita Sehgal at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In the February 15 Nature Neuroscience, they
RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-23 Research News In the hunt for blood biomarkers that predict dementia risk, a large proteomics study has flushed out quarry both old and new. Researchers led by Jin-Tai Yu, Wei Cheng, and Jian-Feng Feng at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, analyzed plas
RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-23 Research News The pathological accumulation of TDP-43 that underlies many cases of FTD, ALS, and LATE-NC has been notoriously difficult to recapitulate in mice or cultured human cells. In a paper published February 14 in Nature, scientists led by Magdalin
RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-21 Research News Type 2 diabetes (T2D) raises a person’s risk of developing dementia by about 50 percent. Does tightly controlling blood sugar decrease that risk? Yes, according to researchers led by Eng-Kiong Yeoh and Kailu Wang at the Chinese University of
RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-18 Research News Recent proteomic studies have offered glimpses into the biology of early Alzheimer’s disease. Two new preprints take this approach further, describing high-throughput surveys that turned up numerous new candidate biomarkers. In one, posted t
RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-16 Research News Immune cells in the blood may be intimately involved with Alzheimer’s pathogenesis in the brain. At least, according to their chromatin. A study published January 31 in Neuron reported that in people with AD, the circulating cells—especially
RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-16 Research News Five years ago, scientists described a deletion of six amino acids within the APP gene, reporting that three members of a Swedish family, who each carried one copy of this “ Uppsala deletion,” developed Alzheimer’s disease in their early 40s
RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-09 Research News Cerebrospinal fluid washes waste from the brain, eventually draining into the lymph nodes and bloodstream—but exactly how this flow bypasses the brain’s barriers to reach the periphery has remained somewhat mysterious. In the February 7 Natu
RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-09 Research News Just as fluid biomarkers for amyloidosis and tau have revolutionized clinical studies of Alzheimer’s disease, α-synuclein markers are poised to do the same for Parkinson’s. With the advent of sensitive assays that reflect α-synuclein patholo
RESEARCH NEWS 2024-02-08 Research News Progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare tauopathy, slowly destroys a person's cognition, balance, and movement. PSP ranks second behind Parkinson’s disease as a cause of Parkinsonism. Beyond variants in the tau gene, a handful of other r