MRI Brain Scans Accurate in Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

piggy submitted, created time 2 weeks 2 days (www.sciencedaily.com)

JOURNAL: ScienceDaily
DESCRIPTION: MRI scans that detect shrinkage in specific regions of the mid-brain attacked by Alzheimer’s disease accurately diagnose the neurodegenerative disease, even before symptoms interfere with daily function, a study by the Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) in Miami and Tampa found.

The study, reported earlier this month in the journal Neurology, adds to a growing body of evidence indicating MRI brain scans provide valuable diagnostic information about Alzheimer’s disease

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Brain Birth Defects Successfully Reversed Through Stem Cell Therapy

piggy submitted, created time 1 week 2 days (www.sciencedaily.com)

Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have succeeded in reversing brain birth defects in animal models, using stem cells to replace defective brain cells.

The work of Prof. Joseph Yanai and his associates at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School was presented at the Tel Aviv Stem Cells Conference last spring and is expected to be presented and published nest year at the seventh annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Barcelona, Spain.

Involved in the project with Prof. Yanai are Prof

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Collagen VI may help protect the brain from Alzheimer's disease

piggy submitted, created time 2 days 20 hours (www.eurekalert.org)

Scientists from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND), UCSF, and Stanford have discovered that a certain type of collagen, collagen VI, protects brain cells against amyloid-beta (Aβ) proteins, which are widely thought to cause Alzheimer's disease (AD). While the functions of collagens in cartilage and muscle are well established, before this study it was unknown that collagen VI is made by neurons in the brain and that it can fulfill important neuroprotective functions

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Brain starvation as we age appears to trigger Alzheimer's

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 week 4 days (esciencenews.com)

A slow, chronic starvation of the brain as we age appears to be one of the major triggers of a biochemical process that causes some forms of Alzheimer's disease. A new study from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine has found when the brain doesn't get enough sugar glucose -- as might occur when cardiovascular disease restricts blood flow in arteries to the brain -- a process is launched that ultimately produces the sticky clumps of protein that appear to be a cause of Alzheimer's.

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Older antidepressants work for Parkinson patients

piggy submitted, created time 2 weeks 6 days (www.reuters.com)

People with Parkinson's disease who also suffer from depression may find they're helped more by an older class of antidepressants than newer types of medication, a small clinical trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health suggests.

The study found that paroxetine (brand name, Paxil), a so-called SSRI antidepressant, appears to be less effective than the "tricyclic" antidepressant nortriptyline for treating depression in patients with Parkinson's disease.

"Depression in Parkinson's disease is underrecognized, underappreciated and undertreated," lead investigator Dr

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Old gastrointestinal drug slows neurodegenerative diseases

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 day 10 hours (www.eurekalert.org)

Recent animal studies have shown that clioquinol – an eighty-year-old drug once used to treat diarrhea and other gastrointestinal disorders – can reverse the progression of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. Scientists, however, had a variety of theories to attempt to explain how a single compound could have such similar effects on three unrelated neurodegenerative disorders.

Researchers at McGill University have discovered a dramatic possible new answer: According to Dr

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Case Western Reserve finds mechanism underlying alt. splicing of premessenger RNA into messenger RNA

piggy submitted, created time 1 week 6 days (www.eurekalert.org)

An international research team led by Tim Nilsen, Ph.D., a professor of medicine and biochemistry and the director of the School of Medicine's Center for RNA Molecular Biology, has discovered an unexpected mechanism governing alternative splicing, the process by which single genes produce different proteins in different situations

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Ohio State Studies Alzheimer's Vaccine Effectiveness

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 days 10 hours (media.www.thelantern.com)

Researchers at The Ohio State University Medical Center have begun studying the effects of a vaccine in slowing the onset of Alzheimer's disease or preventing it altogether.

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