News

Proclara Biosciences has announced two additional patents in its effort to develop therapies for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s that have been linked to protein misfolding. A key step in the biotech company’s approach  to treating these diseases was discovering a protein motif which recognizes that several toxic…

A recently published study contends that older, cognitively healthy people who report feelings of loneliness have higher levels of the Alzheimer’s protein amyloid-beta in the brain — a finding that was not linked to depression. The experience of feeling lonely also was not connected to how extensive a person’s social…

Treatment with the antibiotic Rocephin (ceftriaxone) may restore brain function in areas affected by Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research. The study, “Mapping Synaptic Glutamate Transporter Dysfunction In Vivo To Regions Surrounding Aβ Plaques By Iglusnfr Two-Photon Imaging,” was published in the journal Nature Communications. The hallmark of…

Two years of in-home occupational therapy, added to collaborative care, did not slow the rate of functional decline — the progressive loss of cognitive, emotional, and physical abilities — in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), a new study reported. The study, “Targeting Functional Decline in Alzheimer Disease: A Randomized Trial,” was published…

A new research study has found that the use of benzodiazepines and related drugs increases the risk of hip fracture by 43 percent in people with Alzheimer’s disease. The study was conducted in community-dwelling Finnish people with Alzheimer’s who were evaluated for their hip fracture risk. The results of…

Tiny gas bubbles, embedded in a layer of fat molecules, can turn out to be the answer to a difficulty researchers have been struggling with for decades — the delivery of drugs to the brain. The method uses ultrasound to force the drug-containing bubbles over the barrier that prevents most substances from…

In the wake of the failure of the investigational drug solanezumab, which stirred the debate over whether the prevailing amyloid theory of Alzheimer’s disease is still a viable working hypothesis, ProMIS Neurosciences announced their contribution to Alzheimer’s amyloid-related drug development. The announcement was accompanied by a commentary interpreting…

Women perform better than men on all memory measures but these sex differences tend to disappear as women age and enter menopause, according to a study published in the journal Menopause. These findings highlights the importance of ovarian hormones in maintaining memory function and could explain the reason why women are almost twice as likely as men to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

A study led by Finnish researchers found that long-term use of opioids, painkillers that can be addictive, is common among people in that country with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but at rates similar to people match by age, gender, and region of residence. The study, “Long-term use of opioids for non-malignant pain…

At a time when predictions of a dementia epidemic flourish, a recent study demonstrated that the rates have actually gone down in the U.S. — echoing findings from other studies that suggest that the idea of an epidemic is unfounded. Forces behind the decline in dementia diagnoses are complex, and…