March 14, 2014

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

The Economist's take on the latest research on a blood test for Alzheimer's, Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman making 'noise' for Alzheimer's, and how inflammation and lack of oxygen conspire to cause Alzheimer's and other diseases (read more). 
 
 

Must reads

  • A March 15, 2014 The Economist article reported that while a new blood test for Alzheimer’s may be on the horizon, it is not here yet. According to the article, "What Howard Federoff, of Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington, DC, has done is to provide the basis from which such a test might be developed. His research, just published in Nature Medicine, identified ten molecules whose concentrations in the blood, taken together, predicted with 90% confidence whether someone in the group he studied went on to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s within the next three years."
 
Research and science 
  • A March 13, 2014 Huffington Post piece by Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman highlighted the work of the Center for Brain Health at The University of Texas at Dallas to develop "solutions that will one day prevent, help to earlier diagnose and treat Alzheimer's disease effectively." According to Dr. Chapman, "Our scientific team is conducting randomized trials to determine whether cognitive stimulation can significantly slow or reverse mental decline and brain losses that have been documented in healthy aging. The immediate goal is to delay disease onset and to shorten the time living with considerable cognitive impairment after diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease or other dementias." Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman is founder and chief director of the Center for Brain Health at The University of Texas at Dallas. 
  • A March 13, 2014 Eureka Alert article reported that researchers at the University of British Columbia have "uncovered how inflammation and lack of oxygen conspire to cause brain damage in conditions such as stroke and Alzheimer's disease." According to the article, "The new study shows that the combination of inflammation and hypoxia activates microglia in a way that persistently weakens the connection between neurons. The phenomenon, known as long-term depression, has been shown to contribute to cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease."