An increase in brain inflammation, such as that caused by age, diabetes and obesity, is known to increase risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. Now scientists at UK’s Southampton University are about to start a three-year study, using brain tissue generously donated by people who died with Alzheimer’s disease, to see if inflammation caused by infections such as those of the urinary tract or chest, also speeds up progress of the disease.
Source: Do Infections Speed Up Alzheimer’s?
Natural chemicals found in green tea and red wine may disrupt a key step of the Alzheimer’s disease pathway, according to new research from the University of Leeds.
In early-stage laboratory experiments, the researchers identified the process which allows harmful clumps of protein to latch on to brain cells, causing them to die. They were able to interrupt this pathway using the purified extracts of EGCG from green tea and resveratrol from red wine.
Source: Green tea and red wine extracts interrupt Alzheimer’s disease pathway in cells
Keeping active can slow down the progression of memory loss in people with Alzheimer’s disease, a study has shown. A team of researchers from The University of Nottingham has identified a stress hormone produced during moderate exercise that may protect the brain from memory changes related to the disease.
The work, funded by Research into Ageing (Age UK) and the University and published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, may also explain why people who are susceptible to stress are at more risk of developing the disease.
Source: Exercise can slow onset of Alzheimer’s memory loss, study reports
Scientists have created an ‘early signs timeline’ for Alzheimer’s disease that they believe could help experts detect the condition up to 25 years before it strikes.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, looked at 128 people with a family history of early Alzheimer’s.
Twenty-five years before the first clinical symptoms, Alzheimer’s disease has already produced permanent changes in the brain. New research published in the New England Journal of Medicine traces the timeline of the disease, challenging current perceptions about this devastating form of dementia.
The pharmaceutical industry has beat a concerted retreat from developing drugs for diseases that affect the brain, stymied by the lengthy development times for these agents and a string of failures. Despite the evident risks, a new study shows how industry leaders should perhaps be taking the long view.