Posts

Showing posts from September, 2017

New function discovered for compound that may help slow aging

A study just published in  Aging Cell  outlines a new understanding of how this compound works. "It's possible this could provide a new therapeutic approach to neurologic disease," said Viviana Perez, an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in OSU's College of Science, expert on the biological processes of aging and principal investigator in the Linus Pauling Institute. Scientists have now identified two mechanisms of action of rapamycin. One was already known. The newly-discovered mechanism is what researchers say might help prevent neurologic damage and some related diseases. "The value of rapamycin is clearly linked to the issue of cellular senescence, a stage cells reach where they get old, stop proliferating and begin to secrete damaging substances that lead to inflammation," Perez said. "Rapamycin appears to help stop that process." This secretion of damaging compounds, researchers say, creates a t...

Deep sleep may act as fountain of youth in old age

Image
This picture exhibits neural exercise throughout sleep differs between older and youthful adults . Credit score: Courtesy of Matthew Walker and Bryce Mander As we develop previous, our nights are incessantly affected by bouts of wakefulness, lavatory journeys and different nuisances as we lose our capability to generate the deep, restorative slumber we loved in youth. However does that imply older folks simply want much less sleep? Not based on UC Berkeley researchers, who argue in an article revealed April 5 within the journal  Neuron  that the unmet sleep wants of the aged elevate their threat of reminiscence loss and a variety of psychological and bodily issues. "Practically each illness killing us in later life has a causal hyperlink to lack of sleep," mentioned the article's senior creator, Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of psychology and neuroscience. "We hav...

Common sedatives linked to increased risk of pneumonia in people with Alzheimer's disease

"An increased risk of pneumonia is an important finding to consider in treatment of patients with Alzheimer disease," writes Dr. Heidi Taipale, Kuopio Research Centre of Geriatric Care, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland, with coauthors. "Benzodiazepines and Z-drugs are frequently prescribed for this population, and long-term use is typical. Pneumonia often leads to admission to hospital, and patients with dementia are at increased risk of death related to pneumonia." Dementia, of which 60%-70% of cases are Alzheimer disease, is a risk factor for pneumonia, and many people with dementia are prescribed benzodiazepines and non- benzodiazepines (called Z-drugs), both of which have sedative effects. To determine if there is a link between these drugs and pneumonia, Finnish researchers looked at data from national registries on 49 484 adults living in the community diagnosed with Alzheimer disease between 2005 and 2011 in Finland. The mean age of pa...

Researchers identify link between birth defect, neurodegenerative diseases

The findings will be published in the  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . "These results were really surprising," said the study's lead author, Zhiyong Zhao , PhD, a researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM). "The association suggests that these disparate diseases may have more in common than we previously realized." The researchers on the article also include UM SOM Dean E. Albert Reece. Neural tube defects occur when misfolded proteins accumulate in the cells of the developing nervous system. The misfolded proteins form insoluble clumps and cause widespread cell death, eventually leading to birth defects. Protein clumps also play a major role in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease. In Alzheimer's, for instance, this leads to the accumulation of plaques in the brain, reducing the ability of that organ to function. The researchers studied pregnant mice with diabetes , and found th...

Social media tools can reinforce stigma and stereotypes

In particular, the scientists studied comments and sentiments expressed about Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. It found that 51 percent of tweets by private users of Twitter accounts contained stigma, when making reference to this condition and the people who deal with it. The new system may be applicable to a range of other social science research questions, the researchers said, and already shows that many people may not adequately appreciate the power of social media to greatly transcend the type of interpersonal, face-to-face communication humans are most accustomed to. "As a society it's like we're learning a new skill of text communication, and we don't fully understand or reflect on its power to affect so many people in ways that we may not have intended," said Nels Oscar, an OSU graduate student in the College of Engineering and lead author on the study. "Social media is instant, in some cases can reach millions of people a...

Detecting Alzheimer's disease earlier using ... Greebles?

Image
Which Greeble is completely different? Credit score: Greeble pictures courtesy of Michael J. Tarr, Heart for the Neural Foundation of Cognition and Division of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon College, http://www.tarrlab.org/ Distinctive graphic characters referred to as Greebles might show to be beneficial instruments in detecting indicators of Alzheimer's illness many years earlier than signs change into obvious. In an article printed on-line final week in   Journal of Alzheimer's Illness , Emily Mason, Ph.D., a postdoctoral affiliate within the Division of Neurological Surgical procedure on the College of Louisville, reported analysis displaying that cognitively regular individuals who have a genetic predisposition for Alzheimer's illness (AD) have extra issue distinguishing amongst novel figures referred to as Greebles than people with out genetic predisposition. Alzheimer's illne...

Role of vascular disease in development of Alzheimer's disease

Midlife vascular risk factors have been associated wit h late-life dementia. Whether these risk factors directly contribute to brain amyloid deposition is less well understood. Rebecca F. Gottesman, M.D., Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, and colleagues examined data from 346 participants without dementia at study entry who have been evaluated for vascular risk factors and markers since 1987-1989 and with PET scans in 2011-2013 as part of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC)-PET Amyloid Imaging Study. Positron emission tomography image analysis was completed in 2015. Vascular risk factors a t ARIC study entry (age 45-64 years; risk factors included body mass index 30 or greater, current smoking, hypertension, diabetes, and total cholesterol 200 mg/dL or greater) were evaluated in models that included age, sex, race, APOE genotype, and educational level. The availability of imaging biomarkers for brain amyloid allows the study of indiv...

Human cognitive map scales according to surroundings

Image
for more information visit our product website: Buy Careprost Eye Drops (With Brush) Online

Cognitive and psychosocial function of retired professional hockey players

Cognitive and Psychosocial Function in Retired Professional Hockey Players was published in the  Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry . The ongoing study, which began in 2010, is led by Dr. Brian Levine, neuropsychologist and senior scientist at the Rotman Research Institute and professor of Psychology and Medicine (Neurology) at the University of Toronto. It focuses on retired professional ice hockey players' cognitive and behavioural functioning in relation to their age, concussion history, and genetic risk. "There has been a lot of attention on repeated concussions and neurodegenerative disease, particularly in post-mortem samples of ex-athletes," says Dr. Levine. "There is a need for more comprehensive assessment of mental and behavioral changes during life. This longitudinal study will allow us to track changes over time to better understand aging and brain health in retired professional athletes." Thirty-three retired professional a...

Homing in on plaque-causing protein in ALS and dementia

Ayala and her lab study TDP-43, a protein that binds to RNA and plays a role in gene expression. In 2006, researchers discovered that TDP-43 was the main feature of neurological disorders like ALS and frontotemporal dementia. TDP-43 is an important protein tied to cell survival, metabolism and function that has been conserved by evolution in animals from flies to humans. Without TDP-43, s cientists see animals develop locomotive defects and shortened lifespans. Mice that lack this protein do not survive beyond the embryonic stage. It regulates many genes and controls the processing of messenger RNA. When TDP-43 builds up in cells, it causes damaging plaque to accumulate; this is a hallmark of ALS and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. It also is present in other types of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. Devastating Diseases ALS is a late onset disease; the average age of diagnosis is 55. A devastating illness with no cure, most people die within ...