Researchers are zeroing in on understanding what goes awry in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.
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Despite decades of starts and stops, new treatments and key genetic discoveries are giving researchers great hope for slowing or eventually preventing Alzheimer’s disease.
Microglia (colored green) play several essential roles in maintaining brain health and function.
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Microglia, immune cells disguised as brain cells, are known as the janitors of the brain. Dialing up their usual duties just enough could provide an avenue to treat neurodegenerative disease.
Alzheimer’s may not be primarily a disease of the brain. It may be a disorder of the immune system within the brain. Beta-amyloid may not be an abnormal protein, but part of the brain’s immune system.
Clinical trials of the drug have shown mixed results.
Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by progressive memory loss, spatial disorientation and many other cognitive and behavioural disorders that ultimately lead to a state of total dependence.
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The new drug is based on the idea that a build-up of amyloid in the brain leads to the disease. But that hypothesis has been under scrutiny lately.
Currently, the only approved drugs for Alzheimer’s merely alleviate some of the symptoms — partially and temporarily — but do not stop the disease from progressing.
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It was first officially described 115 years ago, but we still do not have a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. The human brain is extremely complex, and Alzheimer’s is its most complex disease.
Thinking ability declines with age in those with dementia.
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Rachel Buckley, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Have you noticed your thinking ability drops during winter and spring? A new study of healthy adults and dementia patients found cognitive function declines in the colder months.
Yen Ying Lim, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health and Rachel Buckley, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, but treatments are still far from successful in clinical trials. Here is what we know about the disease, and what is yet to be uncovered.
Prion diseases are a rare class of brain disorders that are transmissible between animals of any species, including humans.
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Colin Masters, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
New research has identified a known neurodegenerative disease as being caused by prions. And it has again raised the possibility that these proteins are infectious.