News

The gut microbiome is increasingly seen as a key player in serious and chronic neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s — for reasons that are being suggested and explained, but not quite named. Now, researchers propose a term — “mapranosis” — to capture the process by which amyloid proteins produced…

Loss of synapses, or communication-conveying connections between one nerve cell and another, does not explain the early cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s patients, researchers concluded. The study, “Moderate decline in select synaptic markers in the prefrontal cortex (BA9) of patients with Alzheimer’s disease at various cognitive stages,” appeared in the…

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company and Zinfandel Pharmaceuticals have brought an early end to a Phase 3 clinical trial after their Alzheimer’s therapy pioglitazone failed to prevent the development of mild cognitive impairment. The decision came less than a year after the partners completed enrollment in the TOMMORROW trial (NCT01931566). An interim analysis…

Canada’s IntelGenx has launched a Phase 2a proof-of-concept trial to explore whether the old asthma medication montelukast may be an option for treating Alzheimer’s disease. The idea that montelukast — also used to treat hay fever — may succeed where other approaches have failed, stems from research at Austria’s Paracelsus…

Salk Institute researchers have discovered how a therapy they are developing alleviates the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and reverses aging in mice. The compound, J147, does this by binding to a protein in mitochondria, the cells’ energy powerhouse, the La…

Washington University researchers have received a $10.3 million grant renewal to continue a long-term study of adults who are more susceptible to developing Alzheimer’s because their parents had it. The team is trying to define which of these adults is likely to develop the disease — and when — and to…

Two research teams have independently discovered that a cognition-related gene behaves like a virus in the nervous system — passing on its genetic material between neurons. While scientists are still working to understand the “why” of their discovery, they are in agreement that the mechanism has widespread implications, as it appears…

Proteins in nerve cell synapses, which transmit signals between neurons, are abnormal in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, Swedish researchers concluded after performing a large-scale analysis of synaptic proteins in patients’ brains. By studying these flaws, researchers could distinguish between Alzheimer’s patients and those with…

New York researchers report that daily consumption of food with high levels of salt reduces blood flow to the brain and causes cognitive impairment in mice. The Weill Cornell Medicine study was the first to show a link between diet and cognitive impairment arising from a gut-initiated immune response. It has…

Increased amounts of beta-amyloid proteins often lead to worse anxiety symptoms in cognitive healthy, older individuals, according to a study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry. The study, “Longitudinal Association of Amyloid Beta and Anxious-Depressive Symptoms in Cognitively Normal Older Adults” supports the hypothesis that…