Alzheimer’s – Dementia
11 Dec Hearing Loss Associated With Higher Risk of Cognitive Decline and Dementia
Posted at 22:36h
in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, Geriatrics, Hearing Loss, JAMA
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
David G. Loughrey, BA(Hons)
NEIL (Neuro Enhancement for Independent Lives) Programme
Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, School of Medicine
Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Age-related hearing loss, a common chronic condition among older adults, has emerged in the literature as a potential modifiable risk factor for dementia. This is of interest as current pharmacological therapies for dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease only offer symptom-modifying effects. Treatment of risk factors such as hearing loss may help delay the onset of dementia and may provide an alternate therapeutic strategy. However, there is variance in the research on hearing loss and cognition with some studies reporting a small or non-significant association. In this meta-analysis, we investigated this association and we only included observational studies that used standard assessments of cognitive function and pure-tone audiometry (the clinical standard).
10 Dec More Evidence That Higher Education May Lower Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_38832" align="alignleft" width="161"]
Dr. Larsson[/caption]
Susanna C. Larsson, PhD Associate Professor, Karolinska Institutet, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Stockholm, Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The causes of Alzheimer’s disease are largely unknown and there are currently no medical treatments that can halt or reverse its effects. This has led to growing interest in identifying risk factors for Alzheimer’s that are amenable to modification. Several observational studies have found that education and various lifestyle and vascular risk factors are associated with the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, but whether these factors actually cause Alzheimer’s is unclear.
We used a genetic epidemiologic method known as ‘Mendelian randomization’. This method involves the use of genes with an impact on the modifiable risk factor – for example, genes linked to education or intelligence – and assessing whether these genes are also associated with the disease. If a gene with an impact on the modifiable risk factor is also associated with the disease, then this provides strong evidence that the risk factor is a cause of the disease.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: Our results, based on aggregated genetic data from 17 000 Alzheimer’s disease patients and 37 000 healthy controls, revealed that genetic variants that predict higher education were clearly associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease. A possible explanation for this link is ‘cognitive reserve’, which refers to the ability to recruit and use alternative brain networks or structures not normally used to compensate for brain ageing. Previous research has shown that high education increases this reserve.
We found suggestive evidence for possible associations of intelligence, circulating vitamin D, coffee consumption, and smoking with risk of Alzheimer’s disease. There was no evidence for a causal link with other modifiable factors, such as vascular risk factors.
07 Dec Could Lithium Lower Risk Of Alzheimer’s Disease?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_38767" align="alignleft" width="128"]
Dr. Fajardo[/caption]
Val Andrew Fajardo, PhD.
NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow | Centre for Bone and Muscle Health
Brock University | Department of Health Sciences
St. Catharines, ON, Canada
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Lithium is best known for its role as a mood stabilizer, and several ecological studies across a number of different regions have shown that trace levels of lithium in tap water can exert its mood stabilizing effect and reduce rates of suicide, crime, and homicide.
The results from our study show that these trace levels of lithium could also potentially protect against Alzheimer’s disease. These findings are actually supported by several years of research using pre-clinical and clinical models to demonstrate low-dose lithium’s neuroprotective effect against Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, we also found that trace lithium in tap water may potentially protect against obesity and diabetes – an effect that is also supported with previous literature. In fact, some of the earlier reports of lithium’s effect of increasing insulin sensitivity and improving glucose metabolism were first published in the 1920s. Finally, we found that trace lithium’s effect on Alzheimer’s disease may be partly mediated by its effect on obesity and diabetes.
My collaborator Dr. Rebecca MacPherson who is an expert on Alzheimer’s disease as a metabolic disorder explains that this effect is in support of recent research demonstrating that obesity and diabetes are important risk factors in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. So interventions aiming to reduce obesity and diabetes such as physical activity can go a long way in lowering risk for Alzheimer’s disease, which is also something we present in our study.
06 Dec LMTX® Shows Promise As Monotherapy In Mild Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_38727" align="alignleft" width="147"]
Prof. Wischik[/caption]
Professor Claude Wischik
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman
TauRx Pharmaceuticals
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The study TRx-237-005 was the second of two Phase 3 trials conducted by TauRx, and was specifically set up to investigate the efficacy and safety of LMTX® in 800 patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease at a dose of 100 mg twice daily compared to 4 mg twice daily (intended as an inactive control dose) over an 18-month treatment period.
Results from this study were found to be consistent with those from the first Phase 3 study in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, published in The Lancet [(TRx-237-015) Gauthier et al. 2016], indicating that patients obtained no benefit from LMTX® when it was taken in combination with existing approved drugs for Alzheimer’s disease and supporting the hypothesis that LMTX® might be effective as monotherapy at doses as low as 4 mg twice daily. Please refer to the press release for full study results.
30 Nov Amyloid Deposits In Persons Without Dementia May Be First Sign of Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_38640" align="alignleft" width="128"]
Dr. Jansen[/caption]
Willemijn Jansen, PhD
Postdoctoral researcher
Department of Psychiatry & Neuropsychology
Maastricht University Medical Center
School for Mental Health and Neuroscience
Alzheimer Center Limburg
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Cerebral amyloid-β aggregation is an early pathological event in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), starting decades prior to dementia onset. About 25% of cognitively normal elderly and 50% of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have biomarker evidence of amyloid pathology. These persons are at increased risk for developing AD-type dementia, but the extent to which amyloid-β aggregation affects cognitive function in persons without dementia is unclear. This is important to know for a better understanding of the course of Alzheimer’s disease and for the design of AD prevention trials.
We here investigate the association between amyloid plaques and memory scores, using data from 53 international studies included in the Amyloid Biomarker study. Cognitively healthy elderly people with plaques have a low memory score twice as often as these persons without plaques. MCI patients with plaques had 20% more often low memory and low global cognition scores than MCI patients without plaques.
We further observed 10- to 15-year intervals between the onset of amyloid positivity and emergence of low memory scores in cognitively healthy persons.
15 Nov Sleep Apnea Increases Amyloid Load In Brain, A Hallmark of Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_38308" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Osorio[/caption]
Ricardo S Osorio MD
Center for Brain Health
Department of Psychiatry
Center of Excellence on Brain Aging
NYU Langone Medical Center
New York, NY 10016, USA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: This was a study that was performed in a group of healthy normal elderly from the community that volunteered for studies on memory and aging.
The main findings were that sleep apnea was very common, in almost all cases undiagnosed, and that it was associated with a longitudinal increase in amyloid burden which is considered one of the hallmark lesions of Alzheimer's disease
07 Nov Single Injection of Klotho Gene Protected Animals From Cognitive Decline
Posted at 11:53h
in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, Genetic Research, Nature
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_38035" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Chillon[/caption]
Dr Miguel Chillon PhD
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Universitat Autonoma Barcelona
Spain
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Klotho is a protein with an anti-aging and neuroprotective role. Recent studies show it prevents the development of cognitive problems associated with aging and Alzheimer's disease. Klotho works mainly by inhibiting the insulin / IGF-1 signaling pathway and decreasing the damage caused by oxidative stress in the brain. One of the latest results revealed that the concentration of Klotho in cerebrospinal fluid is significantly lower in Alzheimer's patients than in human controls of the same age; and it is lower in the elderly with respect to young adults.
Our study used a gene therapy strategy to introduce the Klotho gene into the Central Nervous System of adult animals. With just a single injection of the Klotho gene, young adult animals were protected over time from the cognitive decline associated with aging in old animals. These exciting results pave the way to further advances in research and the development of a neuroprotective therapy based on Klotho.
04 Nov Chronic Inflammation in Midlife May Predispose To Smaller Brain Volumes and Memory Ability In Seniors
Posted at 01:46h
in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Johns Hopkins, Memory, Mental Health Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Keenan A. Walker, PhD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: There is quite a bit of evidence linking immune function with dementia. For example, several of the risk genes for Alzheimer’s disease are known to play a key role in immune functioning and the regulation of inflammation. We conducted the current study to determine whether systemic inflammation earlier in life might be a risk factor for neurodegeneration decades later. This long temporal window allows us to get closer to understanding causality. That is, which comes first – systemic inflammation or brain volume loss.
Using a large community sample, we found that individuals with higher levels of blood inflammatory markers during midlife tended to have smaller brain volumes in select regions and reduced memory ability as older adults. We found the strongest associations between systemic inflammation and brain volume loss in brain regions most vulnerable Alzheimer’s disease.
24 Oct Patients With Dementia Less Likely To Receive Chemotherapy for Colon Cancer
Posted at 20:20h
in AACR, Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Cognitive Issues, Colon Cancer, UCSF
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_37702" align="alignleft" width="112"]
Dr. Chen[/caption]
Yingjia Chen, M.Sc, MPH, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of California, San Francisco
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Both colon cancer and dementia are prevalent among the elderly and have a high risk of co-occurrence. Previous studies found that patients with dementia were treated less aggressively. In this study, we hypothesized that presence of pre-existing dementia was associated with worse survival for stage III colon cancer patients, and that post-operative chemotherapy was on the causal pathway.
17 Oct Refined Biomarker Model Can Guage Risk of Alzheimer’s In Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment
Posted at 16:47h
in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Biomarkers, JAMA, Personalized Medicine
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ingrid S. van Maurik, MSc
Department of Neurology and Alzheimer Center
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Amsterdam Neuroscience
VU University Medical Center
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: CSF and MRI biomarkers are increasingly used in clinical practice, but their diagnostic and prognostic value is not perfect. Furthermore, criteria do not specify how to deal with conflicting or borderline results, or how to take patient characteristics into account. Therefore, optimal use of these biomarkers in clinical practice remains challenging.
As part of the ABIDE project, we constructed biomarker-based prognostic models (CSF, MRI and combined) that enable prediction of future Alzheimer’s disease, or any type of dementia, in individual patients with mild cognitive impairment. When using these models, any value can be entered for the variables, resulting in personalized probabilities with confidence intervals.
06 Oct Novel Brain Imaging May Detect Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Sanja Josef Golubic, dr. sc Department of Physics, Faculty of Science University of Zagreb, Croatia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Our study was aimed to search the topological biomarker of Alzheimer’s disease. A recent evidences suggest that the decades long progression of brain degeneration that is irreversible by the stage of symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, may account for failures to develop successful disease-modifying therapies. Currently, there is a pressing worldwide search for a marker of very early, possibly reversible, pathological changes related to Alzheimer’s disease in still cognitively intact individuals, that could provide a critical opportunity for evolving of efficient therapeutic interventions. Three years ago we reported the discovery of the novel, fast brain pathway specialized for rapid processing of the simple tones. We named it gating loop. Gating loop directly links auditory brain areas to prefrontal brain area. We have also noticed the high sensitivity of the gating loop processing on AD pathology. It was inspiration to focus our Alzheimer’s disease biomarker search in the direction of prefrontal brain activation during listening of simple tones.22 Sep Parasitic Infection With Toxoplasmosis May Be Linked To Parkinson’s & Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_37066" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Under a magnification of 900X, this hematoxylin and eosin-stained (H&E) photomicrograph of a brain tissue specimen revealed a case of neurotoxoplasmosis in a patient who had also been diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Note the Toxoplasma gondii tissue cyst, within which bradyzoites could be seen developing. CDC Image[/caption]
Rima McLeod, M.D., F.A.C.P, F.I.D.S.A
Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences,Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases), and The College,
Director, Toxoplasmosis Center,
Senior Fellow,Institute of Genomics, Genetics and Systems Biology, Member, Commitees on Immunology, and Molecular Medicine and Pathogenesis,
Member Global Health Center, Affiliate CHeSS;
Attending Physician, Chicago Medicine,
The University of Chicago
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
* One third of humans are infected lifelong with the brain-dwelling, protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii.
* Approximately fifteen million of these have congenital toxoplasmosis.
* The parasite interconverts between slow-growing, encysted bradyzoites and rapid-growing tachyzoites.
* In mice, T. gondii creates a chronic intra-neuronal infection and an inflammatory process.
* Mice with acute and chronic infection have alterations in neurotransmitters, memory, seizures, and neurobehavior.
* Some epidemiologic-serologic studies show associations between seropositivity for T. gondii and human neurologic diseases, for example, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
* Although neurobehavioral disease is associated with seropositivity, causality is unproven.
* Serologic studies of humans with diverse genetics are not optimal to detect strong associations or directionality.
* Epidemiologic associations also do not reveal parasite-modulated gene networks in human brain that could provide insights into how to cure and prevent resultant diseases.
* We need integrative approaches to examine relationships between brain parasitism and other brain diseases, to provide a foundation to identify key pathways and molecules for drug and vaccine design
* To address these problems, we considered two central questions: (i) If chronic brain parasitism associates with other neurologic diseases, what are they? And (ii) Which macromolecular networks are modulated by the parasite in human brain that lead to neuropathology which could underpin and facilitate design of treatments?
* We hypothesized that a systems approach integrating multiple levels of host parasite interactions might resolve these questions.
* To better understand what this parasite does to human brains, we performed a comprehensive systems analysis of the infected brain.
05 Sep Dementia Incidence Rates May Be Declining
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_36734" align="alignleft" width="125"]
Dr. Derby[/caption]
Carol A. Derby, Ph.D.
Research Professor, The Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology
Research Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Population Health
Louis and Gertrude Feil Faculty Scholar in Neurology
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Bronx, NY 10461
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The population over the age of 85 is expected to triple in the coming decades, and with the aging of the population, the number of individuals living with dementia is projected to increase dramatically.
While dementia prevalence rates are driven by demographic shift to older ages, changes in dementia incidence- the rate at which new cases are diagnosed, would also impact the proportion of the population affected in the coming decades.
Recently, studies have suggested that dementia incidence rates may be declining in some populations, although the results have not been consistent. Better understanding trends in dementia rates is important for public health planning.
Our objective was to determine whether there has been a change in the incidence of dementia diagnosis within a community residing group of over older adults followed by the Einstein Aging Study, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in the Bronx, NY between the years 1993 and 2015.
To accurately characterize trends over time in disease rates requires separating the effects of age and the effects of calendar time. Therefore, we conducted a birth cohort analysis in which we examined age specific dementia incidence rates by birth year, for individuals born between 1910 and 1940. The analysis included over 1300 individuals over the age of 70, who were free of dementia when they enrolled in the study. Dementia was diagnosed using identical criteria over the entire study period, and study recruitment was also consistent over the period. We also examined trends in cardiovascular co-morbidities that have been related to dementia risk, as well as trends in education.
29 Aug Gene Helps Explain Why More Women Than Men Have Alzheimer’s
Posted at 11:01h
in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Genetic Research, JAMA
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_36657" align="alignleft" width="138"]
Dr. Toga[/caption]
Arthur W. Toga PhD
Provost Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, Psychiatry and The Behavioral Sciences,
Radiology and Engineering
Ghada Irani Chair in Neuroscience
Director, USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and informatics institute
USC Institute for Neuroimaging and Informatics
Keck School of Medicine of USC
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90032
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The ε4 allele of the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene is the main genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. This study reexamines and corrects the sex-dependent risks that white men and women with one copy of the ε4 allele face for developing Alzheimer's disease using a very large data set of 57,979 North Americans and Europeans from the Global Alzheimer's Association Interactive Network (GAAIN).
The study results show that these men and women between the ages of 55 and 85 have the same odds of developing Alzheimer's disease, with the exception that women face significantly higher risks than men between the ages of 65 and 75. Further, these women showed increased risk over men between the ages of 55 and 70 for mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is often a transitional phase to dementia.
11 Aug Alzheimer’s: Antidepressants Increase Risk of Head and Traumatic Brain Injuries
Posted at 15:41h
in Accidents & Violence, Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Depression, Geriatrics, Karolinski Institute
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_36437" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Taipale[/caption]
Heidi Taipale, PhD Pharm
Senior Researcher
School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland; and
Department of Clinical Neuroscience
Karolinska Institutet
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Antidepressant use among older persons has been associated with an increased risk of falling and fall-related events, such as hip fractures, in previous studies. Our previous study identified risk of hip fractures in antidepressant among persons with Alzheimer’s disease. As falling is the main causal factor for head traumas and traumatic brain injuries among older persons, we hypothesized that antidepressant use could also be associated with these injuries.
We utilized a nationwide cohort of 70,718 persons newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, identified from the Finnish registers. The risk of head injuries and traumatic brain injuries was compared between persons initiating antidepressant use and comparison persons of the same age, gender and time since they received diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease but not using antidepressants. We found a 40-percent increased risk of head injuries and 30-percent increased risk of traumatic brain injuries associated with antidepressant use. Antidepressant use was associated with a higher risk of head injuries especially at the beginning of use – during the first 30 days – but the risk persisted even longer, up to two years. The association was also confirmed in a study design comparing time periods within the same person, thus eliminating selective factors.
26 Jul Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Help Explain Some Of Alzheimer’s Disease Racial Disparities
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_36164" align="alignleft" width="125"]
Dr. Amy Kind[/caption]
Amy Kind, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Division of Geriatrics
Director, Department of Medicine Health Services and Care Research Program
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and
Associate Director- Clinical
Geriatrics Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC)
William S. Middleton Veteran’s Affairs Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Background: Dementia due to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) disproportionately impacts racial/ethnic minorities and the socioeconomically disadvantaged—populations often exposed to neighborhood disadvantage. Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with education, health behaviors and mortality. Health improves with moving to less disadvantaged neighborhoods (Ludwig, Science 2012). Although studies have linked neighborhood disadvantage to diseases like diabetes and cancer, little is known about its effect on development of dementia.
Objective: To examine the association between neighborhood disadvantage, baseline cognition, and CSF biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease among participants in the WRAP study, comprising a cohort of late-middle-aged adults enriched for parental family history of AD.
Methods: We created and validated neighborhood-level quantifications of socioeconomic contextual disadvantage for the full US—over 34 million Zip+4 codes—employing the latest American Community Survey and Census data. This metric--the Area Deprivation Index (ADI)--incorporates poverty, education, housing and employment indicators; predicts disparity-related health outcomes; and is employed by Maryland and Medicare through our provision. We used standard techniques to geocode all WRAP subjects with a documented address (N= 1479). WRAP participants were ranked into deciles of neighborhood disadvantage, by ADI. Baseline cognitive function (indexed by factor scores) and CSF biomarker outcomes for levels of Aβ42 and P-tau181 (n=153 with CSF samples) were examined by neighborhood disadvantage decile.
26 Jul Obstructive Sleep Apnea May Accelerate Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_36148" align="alignleft" width="168"]
Dr. Bubu[/caption]
O. Michael Bubu, M.D., M.P.H., C.P.H
Wheaton College
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
- Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are both chronic disease conditions that are highly prevalent, cause significant morbidity and mortality to those afflicted, and have an enormous socio-economic impact. Recent human and animal studies describe associations between Sleep Disordered Breathing (SDB) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). However, whether OSA accelerates longitudinal increases in amyloid (Aβ) burden in MCI patients is presently unclear.
- In this study, we examined the effect of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) on longitudinal changes in brain amyloid deposition, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers including CSF beta-amyloid 42 peptide (Aβ-42), CSF TAU protein, CSF phosphorylated TAU protein (PTAU) in Cognitive Normal (CN), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and AD elderly. Brain amyloid (Aβ) burden, CSF Abeta42 and tau proteins are biomarkers (measurable substances whose presence are indicative) of AD-associated pathologic changes in the brain.
- Data from 1639 subjects (516 CN, 798 MCI and 325 AD, mean ages = 74.4 ± 5.8; 73.4 ± 7.4 and 75.1 ± 7.8 respectively), in the Alzheimer’s disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database was used. OSA was self-reported and participants were labeled OSA positive, or OSA negative (mean ages = 72.3 ± 7.1; and 73.9 ± 7.3 respectively). Statistical analyses were conductedto examine whether OSA positive compared to OSA negative participants experienced significant differences in the rate of change of AD biomarkers over time (mean = 2.52 ± 0.51 years) in each group (CN, MCI and AD). Both OSA positives and negatives were similar in age, APOE e4 status, and history of cardiovascular disease. The final models controlled for sex, body mass index (BMI), and Continuous Pulmonary Airway Pressure (CPAP) use.
24 Jul Diet Rich in Anti-Inflammatory Foods May Help Preserve Brain Function
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Yian Gu, PhD Assistant Professor of Neuropsychology (in Neurology and Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain) Columbia University Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We have previously shown that elderly individuals who consume healthier diet (certain foods, nutrients, and dietary patterns) have larger brain volume, better cognition, and lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The current study aimed to examine the biological mechanisms for the relationship between diet and brain/cognitive health.18 Jul Patients and Providers Feel Amyloid PET Scanning Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease Beneficial
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_35997" align="alignleft" width="161"]
Dr. Apostolova[/caption]
Liana Apostolova, MD, MSc, FAAN
Barbara and Peer Baekgaard Professor in Alzheimer's Disease Research
Professor in Neurology, Radiology. Medical and Molecular Genetics
Indiana University School of Medicine
Indiana Alzheimer's Disease Center
Indianapolis, IN 46202
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: While many studies have evaluated the diagnostic or prognostic implications associated with amyloid PET, few have explored its effects on the patient or caregiver. Amyloid imaging does not only help clinicians with their diagnosis and management. It also affects patient and caregiver decisions related to lifestyle, financial and long-term care planning, and at times also employment. Few studies to date have explored patient and caregiver views on the clinical use of amyloid PET and the potential benefits they could derive from having more precise diagnosis.
18 Jul Paper and Digital SAGE Brain Tests Equally Identify Cognitive Impairment and Dementia
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_35993" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Douglas Scharre[/caption]
Douglas W. Scharre MD
Professor of Clinical Neurology and Psychiatry Director, Division of Cognitive Neurology
Department of Neurology
Director, Center for Cognitive and Memory Disorders
Director, Memory Disorders Research Center
Co-Director, Neuroscience Research Institute
Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Columbus, OH
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE) is a pen-and paper, valid and reliable cognitive assessment tool for identifying individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or early dementia. We published age and education normative data on SAGE and determined that one point be added to the scores when age over 79 and one point be added when education level is 12 years or less. We evaluated the identical test questions in digital format (eSAGE) made for tablet use, adjusted with previously published age and education norms, and determined eSAGE’s association with gold standard clinical assessments. eSAGE is commercially known as BrainTest.
22 Jun Gene Linked To Decreased Plasma Amyloid and Lower Alzheimer’s Disease Risk
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_35523" align="alignleft" width="133"]
Dr. Hiltunen[/caption]
Mikko Hiltunen, PhD
Professor of Tissue and Cell Biology
University of Eastern Finland
School of Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine
Kuopio, Finland
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: We wanted to assess among the population-based METSIM (METabolic Syndrome In Men) cohort whether protective variant in APP gene (APP A673T) affects the beta-amyloid levels in plasma. The rationale behind this was that previous genetic studies have discovered that the APP A673T variant decreases the risk of having Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
However, the protective functional outcome measures related to this variant were lacking and thus we anticipated that the elucidation of plasma samples in terms of beta-amyloid levels would provide the much needed link between APP A673T variant and potential protective functions.
23 May Familial History Improves Predictive Value of TOMM40 Gene in Alzheimer’s Disease
Posted at 21:43h
in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Mental Health Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_34811" align="alignleft" width="160"]
Dr. Willette[/caption]
Auriel Willette, M.S., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Departments of Food Science and Human Nutrition and Psychology
Iowa State University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Translocase of Outer Mitochondrial Membrane 40 (TOMM40) is a gene that regulates the width of the outer mitochondrial pore, facilitating the transport of ribosomal pre-proteins into the inner mitochondrial matrix for translational modification into functional proteins. In 2010, Dr. Allen Roses, who discovered the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene, Dr. Michael Lutz, and other colleagues found that a variation in poly-T length at locus rs10524523 ('523) within intron 6 predicted Alzheimer's disease onset. Specifically, a "long" versus "short" poly-T length was related to earlier age of onset by 8 years.
However, several multi-cohort studies either failed to replicate the findings or found the opposite relationship, where a "long" or "very long" poly-T length was related to later age of onset. The literature has remained mixed to this day.
We were interested in testing factors that might change the relationship between TOMM40 and both cognitive decline and risk for having Alzheimer's disease. It is known that a family history (FH) of Alzheimer's disease has been associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. We reasoned, then, that FH may interact with TOMM40 to modulate how it was related to our outcomes of interest. We investigated this hypothesis in two separate cohorts: the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention (WRAP), a late middle-aged cohort, and the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), a well-characterized sample of aged participants from across the Alzheimer's spectrum.
18 May Salivary Biomarker May Lead To Spit Test For Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_34808" align="alignleft" width="142"]
Dr. Yilmaz[/caption]
Ali Yilmaz, PhD
Beaumont Research Institute
Beaumont Health, Royal Oak, MI
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by the accumulation of β-amyloid plaques and tau tangles. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is progressive degree of impairment that is greater than might be attributed to normal age-related cognitive decline, but is not so severe as to merit a diagnosis of dementia. MCI is thought to be a transitional state between normal aging and AD sufferers phenotypically converting to AD at a rate of 10% per year. Currently there is no cure and few reliable diagnostic biomarkers for AD. As we live longer there is an ever increasing demand for valid and reliable biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease; not only because it will help clinicians recognize the disease in its earliest symptomatic stages but will also be important for developing novel treatment of AD. Using 1D H NMR metabolomics, we biochemically profiled saliva samples collected from healthy-controls (n = 12), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) sufferers (n = 8), and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients (n = 9). We accurately identified significant concentration changes in 22 metabolites in the saliva of MCI and AD patients compared to controls.
18 May Depressive Symptoms Not Found To Increase Risk of Dementia
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_34653" align="alignleft" width="130"]
Dr. Archana Singh-Manoux[/caption]
Archana Singh-Manoux, PhD
Research Professor (Directeur de Recherche)
Epidemiology of ageing & age-related diseases
INSERM France
Honorary Professor
University College London, UK
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Depressive symptoms are common in dementia patients. Previous studies, based on older adults, show depressive symptoms in late life to be associated with an increased risk of dementia. These studies do not allow conclusions to be drawn on the causal nature of the association between depressive symptoms and dementia.
02 May Alzheimer’s Disease: Tramiprosate Envelopes Amyloid Protein To Prevent Misfolding Into Aggregates
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_34316" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Kocis[/caption]
Dr. Petr Kocis PhD
Vice President Preclinical Development
Alzheon, Inc.
University of Oxford
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Researchers widely accept that amyloid plaques are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. However, for many years, drug development has focused on the solid amyloid plaque as a primary disease culprit. Recent advances show that it is more likely that early stage soluble beta amyloid oligomers play a key role in the pathogenic process of Alzheimer’s disease.
A paper recently published by Alzheon, a company developing medicines for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders, suggests a new therapeutic mechanism for targeting toxic amyloid beta oligomers with a small molecule, tramiprosate, the active agent in the drug candidate, ALZ-801. ALZ-801 is a Phase 3-ready drug candidate that is an optimized prodrug of tramiprosate, with a substantially improved pharmacokinetic and safety profile compared to tramiprosate.
Alzheon scientists discovered that tramiprosate acts to inhibit the production of neurotoxic beta amyloid oligomers by ‘enveloping’ the amyloid peptide to prevent its misfolding into soluble amyloid aggregates. Beta amyloid oligomers are believed to be key drivers of the pathogenic process in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This novel enveloping mechanism of tramiprosate prevents the self-assembly of misfolded proteins into beta amyloid oligomers that lead to amyloid aggregation and, subsequently, cause neuronal toxicity and clinical progression in Alzheimer’s disease. These results were published in the medical journal, CNS Drugs, and the paper is available through Open Access here. [“Elucidating the Aß42 Anti-Aggregation Mechanism of Action of Tramiprosate in Alzheimer’s Disease: Integrating Molecular Analytical Methods, Pharmacokinetic and Clinical Data”]
11 Apr Can Greebles Help Identify People At Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Emily Mason, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Associate Department of Neurological Surgery University of Louisville MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? [caption id="attachment_33830" align="alignleft" width="350"]
Family History of Alzheimer’s Disease is Associated with Impaired Perceptual Discrimination of Novel Objects[/caption]
Response: Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that currently affects one in eight Americans over the age of 65. Unfortunately, there is still no treatment that will halt or reverse the pathology associated with Alzheimer’s disease. One of the reasons for this may be that we still don’t fully understand what is happening in the very earliest stages of the disease. Previous studies have shown that one of the pathological hallmarks of the disease, called “tau tangles,” begins to accumulate in a specific area of the brain called the medial temporal lobe decades before people are typically diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. We wondered if we could use cognitive tests targeted to structures in the medial temporal lobe to pick up very subtle behavioral changes in people who were at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease. We examined people who were in their 40s and 50s, which is a time when if any differences could be detected, it’s possible that pathology may be reversible.
Using a cognitive task called “odd man out" that can be easily implemented using a computer, we found that subjects at risk for Alzheimer’s disease tended to do worse in identifying differences between objects called Greebles. These objects are highly visually similar, and most people have never seen them before. Those two things make this task very difficult. We believe that this study lays some of the groundwork in developing cognitive tests targeted at relatively young subjects who may be in the very earliest stages of the disease.
21 Mar Neither Vitamin E or Selenium Found To Prevent Dementia
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_33184" align="alignleft" width="140"]
Dr. Richard Kryscio[/caption]
Richard J. Kryscio, Ph.D.
Statistics and Chair, Biostatistics and Sanders-Brown Center on Aging
Sanders-Brown Center on Aging
University of Kentucky
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: At the time the trial was initiated (2002), there was ample evidence that oxidative stress is an important mechanism in brain aging. Research showed that protein oxidation is linked to the brain’s response to the abnormal proteins seen in Alzheimer disease (amyloid beta plaques in particular) leading to inflammation, DNA repair problems, reduced energy production, and other cellular changes that are identified mechanisms in the Alzheimer brain.
Both vitamin E and selenium are antioxidants. Antioxidants, either through food or supplements, are believed to reduce oxidative stress throughout the body. In the brain, they may reduce the formation of amyloid beta plaques, reduce brain inflammation, and improve other brain processes. Studies in humans support these hypotheses. The Rotterdam study in the Netherlands, as an example, showed that initial blood levels of vitamin E could predict dementia risk. Those people with higher vitamin E levels were 25% less likely to develop dementia. Also, selenium deficiency results in cognitive difficulties and several population-based studies have shown an association between selenium level and cognitive decline (lower selenium levels are linked to thinking changes in the elderly).
04 Mar No Decrease In Incidence of Dementia Over Past Decades
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32653" align="alignleft" width="173"]
Dr. Emma van Bussel[/caption]
Emma van Bussel MD, MSc
Academic Medical Center | University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam | The Netherlands
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Dementia forms a high social and economic burden on society. Since there is a growing number of older people, the occurrence of dementia is expected to increase over the years to come. For future planning of care, it is important to have reliable predictions on new dementia cases for the population at large. Studies in Western countries suggested that the incidence per 1000 person years is declining.
We studied the incidence trend of dementia in the Netherlands in primary care registry data, in a population of over 800,000 older people (60 years and over) for the years 1992 to 2014. Our results indicate a small increase of 2.1% (95% CI 0.5% to 3.8%) per year in dementia incidence over the past decades. The trend did not change in the years after 2003, when a national program was developed to support dementia care and research, compared to the years prior to 2003.
01 Mar Safety and Immunogenicity of the Tau Vaccine AADvac1 in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_32529" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Petr Novak[/caption]
Petr Novak, MD, PhD
AXON Neuroscience
Bratislava, Slovakia
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Alzheimer’s disease is a complex, multifactorial disorder, with many-faceted neuropathology. A hallmark finding is the co-existence of neurofibrillary pathology (such as neurofibrillary tangles) composed of tau protein, and amyloid-β pathology (plaques) [1].
Neurofibrillary pathology is closely correlated with cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease [2], while support for the role amyloid in the disease pathogenesis comes from the ability of certain mutations to induce AD in an autosomal-dominant fashion [3].
The field has explored various anti-amyloid therapies to great extent, and continues to do so with undiminished effort [4]; meanwhile, there is a noticeable paucity of investigated therapies aimed at neurofibrillary tau protein pathology, despite the ability of tau protein dysfunction to cause a multitude of neurodegenerative disorders, collectively named “tauopathies” [5].
AADvac1 is the first tau-targeted immunotherapy investigated in humans [6], a pioneering effort to target the component of AD neuropathology that is proximal to neuronal damage and cognitive loss, and thus to halt or slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.