Dementia in the News

Science Daily (October 15, 2009): Scientists Remove Amyloid Plaques from Brains of Live Animals with Alzheimer's Disease

A breakthrough discovery by scientists from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL, may lead to a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease that actually removes amyloid plaques - considered a hallmark of the disease - from patients' brains.

This discovery, published online in the FASEB Journal, is based on the unexpected finding that when the brain's immune cells (microglia) are activated by the interleukin-6 protein (IL-6), they actually remove plaques instead of causing them or making them worse. The research was performed in a model of Alzheimer's disease established in mice.

The (UK) Times Online (October 15, 2009): OMG Launching New Camera for Alzheimer's Patients

OMG, the Oxford-based company behind the motion-capture technology used in Hollywood films, is preparing to launch a device designed to help Alzheimer's disease sufferers cope with memory loss.

The UK company has signed a license with software giant Microsoft to use its SenseCam technology to launch a wearable camera that automatically takes digital photos of the patient's day. The images taken by the device, which is smaller and lighter than an iPod, can then be viewed to reinforce the patient's memories.

The Globe and Mail (October 13, 2009): Digital Technology Eyed in Fight Against Alzheimer's

Researchers in several countries are beginning to explore new uses for digital technology in treating Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia and the University of Toronto is playing an important part.

Devices resulting from this line of inquiry are sometimes known as "cognitive prosthetics", a name intended to communicate their true ability: Not rehabilitation, merely assistance. Dementias, including Alzheimer's, remain incurable.

U.S. News & World Report (October 12, 2009): Drop in Certain Visual Skills May Precede Alzheimer's

The ability to perceive relationships between objects (visuospatial skills) may decline years before a person is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, a new study suggests.

It included 444 people who were dementia-free when they were enrolled in the study and underwent tests on a number of cognitive abilities, including visuospatial skills. The assessments were repeated at least once before the end of the study. After an average follow-up of 5.9 years, 134 participants had developed dementia. Of those, 44 underwent brain autopsies that confirmed they had Alzheimer's disease.

Science Daily (October 8, 2009): Protective Role for Copper in Alzheimer's Disease

Two articles in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease -- by Dr. Chris Exley, Reader in Bioinorganic Chemistry in the Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics at Keele University, UK, and Dr. Zhao-Feng Jiang, of Beijing Union University, Beijing, China -- have confirmed a potentially protective role for copper in Alzheimer's disease.

Previous research has shown that copper is one component of the amyloid beta plaques which are found in the brains of people of Alzheimer's disease.

Science Daily (October 6, 2009): New Findings About Brain Proteins Suggest Possible Way to Fight Alzheimer's

The action of a small protein that is a major villian in Alzheimer's disease can be counterbalanced with another brain protein, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in an animal study.

The findings, available online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest a promising new tactic against the devastating illness, the researchers said.

Bostonia Magazine (October 1, 2009): Life Goes On

One early summer Saturday, Ted Clapp, a retired minister and psychologist, invited about twenty of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to lunch at his place north of Portland, Maine. He had set out some family treasures - including arrowheads found on his grandfather's farm, watercolor paintings by some "ancient ancestor," an antique trumpet, and his great-grandfather's sword - that he'd collected over his ninety years.

Proto Magazine (Fall 2009): Tangier Disease: One Island's Treasure

The surgeon who removed the five-year-old boy's tonsils in 1959 had never seen anything like them. Instead of pinkish lobes, the boy's tonsils were huge and orange. Thinking that their extraordinary appearance might signal a rare malignancy, the surgeon sent the tonsils to the Armed Forces Pathology Institute in Washington, DC. Though researchers there found no cancer, they did discover the reason for the tissue's abnomal size and color: Its cells were bloated with cholesterol.

New York Times (September 30, 2009): Dementia Risk Seen in Players in N.F.L. Study

A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer's disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league's former players vastly more often than in the national population - including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49.

The N.F.L. has long denied the existence of reliable data about cognitive decline among its players. These numbers would become the league's first public affirmation of any connection, though the league pointed to limitations of this study.

Monell Chemical Senses Center (September 29, 2009): Oleocanthal May Help Prevent, Treat Alzheimer's

Oleocanthal, a naturally-occuring compound found in extra-virgin olive oil, alters the structure of neurotoxic proteins believed to contribute to the debilitating effects of Alzheimer's disease. This structural change impedes the protein's ability to damage brain nerve cells.

"The findings may help identify effective preventative measures and lead to improved therapeutics in the fight against Alzheimer's disease," said study co-leader Paul A. S. Breslin, PhD, a sensory psychobiologist at the Monell Center.