Decreasing the level of “stress granules,” gritty blobs of RNA that form when things like heat, viruses, or toxins stress a cell, may be a new way to fight Alzheimer’s disease, research from Boston University School of Medicine suggests. The findings offer a new understanding of the biology of Alzheimer’s disease and may eventually offer…
Category: Neurology
How Lymphocytes Cross Blood-brain Barrier In Multiple Sclerosis
In multiple sclerosis, immune cells degrade the insulation that protects neurons and allows them to signal to one another, but little is known about how immune cells penetrate the blood-brain barrier to get to neurons. Now, two different ways immune cells gain access to neurons and wreak their havoc have been uncovered by researchers led…
Pimozide May Stabilize Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Progression
A medication that could make it possible to treat individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease has been discovered by a team of Canadian researchers. Pimozide was found to be safe and over the short term, preliminary data shows that it could stabilize the progression of ALS. This neurodegenerative disease normally leads…
Parkinson’s Disease Could Be The Next Pandemic
The number of people with Parkinson’s disease will soon grow to pandemic proportions, experts warn, and the medical community needs to mobilize to respond to the impending public health threat. “Pandemics are usually equated with infectious diseases like Zika, influenza, and HIV. But neurological disorders are now the leading cause of disability in the world…
Membralin Levels Are Reduced In Alzheimer's Disease
A protein named membralin is key to keeping Alzheimer’s disease pathology in check, scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have shown. Their study shows that membralin regulates the cell’s machinery for producing amyloid beta, the protein that causes neurons to die in Alzheimer’s disease. The finding helps fill in the picture of…
A Neural Substrate For Heightened Craniofacial Pain
How the brain’s wiring makes us suffer more from head and face pain has been uncovered by Duke University scientists. People consistently rate pain of the head, face, eyeballs, ears and teeth as more disruptive, and more emotionally draining, than pain elsewhere in the body. The answer may lie not just in what is reported…
Sleep Apnea Linked To Increased Alzheimer's Risk For Elderly
Elderly people with obstructive sleep apnea may be at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, new research suggests. In the study, researchers found that biomarkers for amyloid beta, the plaque-building peptides associated with Alzheimer’s disease, increase over time in elderly adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in proportion to OSA severity. Therefore, those with more…
P7C3: Neuroprotective Compound Protects Against Alzheimer's Symptoms
Treatment with P7C3, a neuroprotective compound that saves brain cells from dying, also prevents the development of depression-like behaviour and the later onset of memory and learning problems in a rat model of Alzheimer’s disease. The treatment protects the animals from Alzheimer’s-type symptoms, but without altering the buildup of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in…
Eye Imaging Provides Neurovascular Biomarker In Alzheimer’s Subjects
The relationship between blood flow in the brain and neurodegenerative diseases is well documented and gaining prominence in research circles. The dysfunction of brain blood flow (neurovascular dysfunction) has been shown to disrupt the removal of the key Alzheimer’s protein amyloid-beta as well as damaging brain cells from leakage of foreign cells into the brain…