How Down syndrome may help unravel Alzheimer's puzzle

[BlueGin]

Hope this pans out. A drug that treats plaque formation that may cause dementia. Side effect? Improving memory and intellectual function of people with downs syndrome. A win win.

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Scientists have known for decades that people with Down syndrome were at increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, but they didn’t know why. Some researchers now believe that understanding the connection between the two conditions might help us unravel the Alzheimer’s puzzle and point towards therapies that might slow, or even halt, the dreaded disease.

“It’s a tantalizing and provocative question: Do people with Down syndrome hold the key to the mystery of Alzheimer’s development?” Dr. Brian Skotko, co-director of the Down Syndrome Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said in a telephone interview. “And what can we learn from those with Down syndrome that will benefit the rest of the population?”

Not only do more people with Down syndrome develop Alzheimer’s, but they also develop it at a much younger age. By age 40, a full 40 percent of people with Down syndrome will develop the disease, and by age 50 that rises to 50 percent, Skotko told TODAY’s Maria Shriver.

While not everyone with Down syndrome develops dementia, all develop changes in their brains that are found in Alzheimer’s patients – plaques made of a sticky protein called amyloid-beta that gunk up the spaces between nerve cells in the brain. Those plaques start to develop in people with Down syndrome at a very early age.

As it turns out, the precursor protein for amyloid-beta is encoded on the 21st chromosome, which happens to be the very chromosome that people with Down syndrome get an extra copy of, says Dr. Cindy Lemere, an associate professor of neurology at the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

How Down syndrome may help unravel Alzheimer's puzzle - NBC News.com

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd already practicin' ju-jitsu fer when Granny goes completely goofy...

Rising Alzheimer's creates strain on caregivers
WASHINGTON (AP) -- David Hilfiker knows what's coming. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's so early that he's had time to tell his family what he wants to happen once forgetfulness turns incapacitating.

"When it's time to put me in an institution, don't have me at home and destroy your own life," said the retired physician, who is still well enough that he blogs about the insidious progress of the disease. "Watching the Lights Go Out," it's titled. Nearly half of all seniors who need some form of long-term care - from help at home to full-time care in a facility - have dementia, the World Alzheimer Report said Thursday. It's a staggering problem as the global population ages, placing enormous strain on families who provide the bulk of that care at least early on, and on national economies alike.

Indeed, cognitive impairment is the strongest predictor of who will move into a care facility within the next two years, 7.5 times more likely than people with cancer, heart disease or other chronic ailments of older adults, the report found. "It's astonishing," said Marc Wortmann, executive director of Alzheimer's Disease International, which commissioned the report and focused on the problems of caregiving. "What many countries try to do is keep people away from care homes because they say that's cheaper. Yes it's cheaper for the government or the health system, but it's not always the best solution." And dropping birth rates mean there are fewer children in families to take care of aging parents, too, said Michael Hodin of the Global Coalition on Aging. "Very shortly there will be more of us over 60 than under 15," he noted.

Today, more than 35 million people worldwide, including 5 million in the U.S., are estimated to have Alzheimer's. Barring a medical breakthrough, those numbers are expected to more than double by 2050. This week, the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced $45 million in new Alzheimer's research, with most of the money focused on finding ways to prevent or at least delay the devastating disease. The Obama administration had hoped to invest $100 million in new Alzheimer's research this year, a move blocked by the budget cuts known as the sequester. Overall, the nation has been investing about $400 million a year in Alzheimer's research.

But the disease's financial toll is $200 billion a year in the U.S. alone, a tab expected to pass $1 trillion by 2050 in medical and nursing home expenditures - not counting unpaid family caregiving. The world report puts the global cost at $604 billion. Thursday, families affected by Alzheimer's and aging advocates said it's time for a global push to end the brain disease, just like the world's governments and researchers came together to turn the AIDS virus from a death sentence into a chronic disease.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Brain resists initial Alzheimer's onset...

Brain may 'compensate' for Alzheimer's damage
14 September 2014 ~ The human brain may be able to compensate for some of the early changes seen in Alzheimer's disease, research in Nature Neuroscience shows.

The study suggests some people recruit extra nerve power to help maintain their ability to think. Scientists hope the findings could shed light on why only some people with early signs of the condition go on to develop severe memory decline. But experts warn much more research is needed to understand these processes.

'Protein tangles'

The study, led by researchers at the University of California, involved 71 adults with no signs of mental decline. Brain scans showed 16 of the older subjects had amyloid deposits - tangles of protein that are considered a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. All participants were asked to memorise a series of pictures in detail while scanners were used to track their brain activity. They were then asked to recall the gist and later the detail of all the pictures they had seen. Both groups performed equally well but those with tangles of amyloid in their brains showed more brain activity when remembering the images in detail. Scientists say this suggests their brains have an ability to adapt to and compensate for any early damage caused by the protein.

The brains of Alzheimer's patients often have tangles of proteins called amyloid plaques

Brain stimulation

Dr Laura Phipps, at the charity Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "This small study suggests that our brains may have ways of resisting early damage from these Alzheimer's proteins but more research is needed to know how to interpret these results. She added: "Longer term studies are needed to confirm whether the extra brain activity seen in this research is a sign of the brain compensating for early damage, and if so, how long the brain might be able to fight this damage." Scientists say they need to understand why some people with an accumulation of this protein are better at using different parts of their brain than others. Dr William Jagust, a researcher on the study, said: "I think it is very possible that people who spend a lifetime involved in cognitively stimulating activity have brains that are better able to adapt to potential damage."

BBC News - Brain may compensate for Alzheimer s damage

 

[Moonglow]

Vitamin D was discovered to help people not get Alzheimer's....be sure to get plenty of vit. D..

 

[waltky]

GPR3 may play a big part in Alzheimer's...

Scientists Identity Protein That May Play Role in Alzheimer's Disease
October 14, 2015: Scientists have identified a protein they say may play a big part in the development of Alzheimer's disease.

Reporting in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the researchers said autopsies on the brains of some Alzheimer's patients have shown high levels of a protein called GPR3. Experiments in which the protein is eliminated in mice with the disease showed improvement in the animals' condition.

Patients with Alzheimer's and dementia dance inside the Alzheimer Foundation in Mexico City​

But the doctors said much more research was needed to see whether the same result could be reached in humans. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of a condition known as dementia in which the brain's cognitive and memory functions degenerate. There is no cure for the disease, and the number of cases is expected to grow as the global population ages.

Scientists Identity Protein That May Play Role in Alzheimer's Disease[/CENTER]

See also:

New TV Program Explores the Human Brain
October 13, 2015 — On October 14 the U.S. Public Broadcast Service, PBS, will begin airing a six-part series called “The Brain with David Eagleman,” in which the famed neuroscientist from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas demonstrates what science has learned about the most complex thing in the known universe.

In the six-part program Eagleman demonstrates how our brains create what we perceive as reality and how what we are is a construct within the brain’s circuitry that is never complete. “We are not fixed; from cradle to grave, we are works in progress,” said Eagleman. “I think what people will find, I hope, if I have done my job right, is an inroad into understanding themselves a little bit better.” In a presentation in Houston, Eagleman spoke of his fascination with the human brain’s complexity. “The brain contains a hundred billion neurons… and every single neuron in your brain is about as complicated as the city of Houston,” he said.

In sample clips from his series, Eagleman showed experiments he and other researchers have done to learn how the brain works. He shows how simple actions involve many coordinated brain patterns influenced by impulses that sometimes compete.

He said the conscious, reasoning part of the brain sometimes struggles with the basic impulses from the larger, unconscious part of the brain. “When you are faced with some temptation, like warm chocolate-chip cookies in front of you, part of your brain wants that, part of your brain says, ‘Don’t eat that; you are going to get fat’ and you can argue with yourself,” he explained. In the series, Eagleman also looks ahead to where brain research may lead in the future and he says there is a lot more to learn. “Why do brains sleep and dream? What is intelligence? How do you build consciousness out of pieces and parts? Those questions are still open territory,” said Eagleman. The PBS series “The Brain with David Eagleman” airs in the United States beginning Wednesday.

VIDEO

 

[waltky]

Granny gets aggitated when she an' Uncle Ferd go out walkin' an' he walks rings around her...

Is slow walking speed a sign of approaching Alzheimer's?
Thursday 3 December 2015 - The speed at which elderly people walk may indicate their likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to research published in Neurology.

Researchers led by Natalia del Campo, PhD, of the Gerontopole and the Center of Excellence in Neurodegeneration of Toulouse, in France, hypothesized that a slower speed of walking may be related to the amount of amyloid plaque people with Alzheimer's have built up in their brains, even if they do not yet have external symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Scientists consider amyloid plaques the most likely cause of the damage that underlies Alzheimer's.

Amyloid plaques in the brain may cause walking pace to slow down before causing signs of dementia.​

Amyloid precursor protein (APP) occurs throughout the body. The amyloid hypothesis proposes that there is a fault with the processing of APP in the brain, leading to the production of a short fragment of APP, a sticky protein known as beta-amyloid. The accumulated clumps of beta-amyloid are known as amyloid plaques. When this sticky protein fragment accumulates in the brain, it is thought to trigger the disruption and destruction of nerve cells that cause Alzheimer's disease.

Brain scans, motor and cognitive skills examined

The team looked at 128 people with an average age of 76 who did not have dementia but who were considered at high risk for developing it because they were experiencing problems with their memory. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans were carried out on the participants' brains to measure for amyloid plaques. Of the participants, 48% had a level of amyloid often associated with dementia.

The participants' thinking and memory skills and their ability to complete everyday activities were also tested. A total of 46% of the participants had mild cognitive impairment, which can signal the start of the dementia that occurs in Alzheimer's disease. Walking speed was measured using a standard test that times people on how fast they can walk about 13 feet at their usual pace. The average walking speed was 3.48 feet per second. All but two of the participants were in the normal range of walking speed.

Association between walking speed and amyloid levels

 

[waltky]

Granny says she'd have to be awful goofy to eat worms...

Alzheimer's preventative drug hope
13 February 2016 - Scientists have detected a number of drugs which could help protect against Alzheimer's disease, acting like statins for the brain.

In experiments on worms, University of Cambridge researchers identified drugs which prevented the very first step towards brain cell death. They now want to match up drugs with specific stages of the disease. Experts said it was important to find out if these drugs could work safely in humans. Statins are taken by people to reduce the risk of developing heart disease and the Cambridge research team says its work may have unearthed a potential "neurostatin" to ward off Alzheimer's disease.

Genetically programmed worms

Rather than treating the symptoms of the disease, a neurostatin could be used as a preventative measure to stop the condition appearing in the first place. The cancer drug bexarotene, for example, was found to stop the first step which leads to the death of brain cells in worms genetically programmed to develop Alzheimer's disease. In previous trials in humans, researchers tested the drug at a later stage of the disease to see if it would clear amyloid plaques from the brain but the trials were unsuccessful.

Bexarotene is just one of number of drugs which has shown early promise as a preventative drug against Alzheimer's disease​

Dr Rosa Sancho, head of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said scientists must find out exactly how the drug works before any clinical trials. "We will now need to see whether this new preventative approach could halt the earliest biological events in Alzheimer's and keep damage at bay in further animal and human studies. "This early research in worms suggests that bexarotene could act earlier in the process to interfere with amyloid build-up."

Defences 'overwhelmed'

 

[Kat]

My mom has Alzheimer's. Knowing what she goes though I would love to see something that helps others. Probably way too late for my mom, but not others. So many are getting it.
VERY painful thing to go through....for the family.

 

[waltky]

New blood test for Alzheimer's looks very promising...

Blood test finds toxic Alzheimer's proteins
31 January 2018 - Scientists in Japan and Australia have developed a blood test that can detect the build-up of toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease.

The work, published in the journal Nature, is an important step towards a blood test for dementia. The test was 90% accurate when trialled on healthy people, those with memory loss and Alzheimer's patients. Experts said the approach was at an early stage and needed further testing, but was still very promising.

Brain scans

Alzheimer's disease starts years before patients have any symptoms of memory loss. The key to treating the dementia will be getting in early before the permanent loss of brain cells. This is why there is a huge amount of research into tests for Alzheimer's. One method is to look for a toxic protein - called amyloid beta - that builds up in the brain during the disease. It can be detected with brain scans, but these are expensive and impractical.

'Major implications'

The new approach, a collaboration among universities in Japan and Australia, looks for fragments of amyloid that end up in the blood stream. By assessing the ratios of types of amyloid fragment, the researchers could accurately predict levels of amyloid beta in the brain. Significantly, the study shows it is possible to look in the blood to see what is happening in the brain. Dr Abdul Hye, from King's College London, said: "This study has major implications as it is the first time a group has shown a strong association of blood plasma amyloid with brain and cerebrospinal fluid."

Early stages

The test is cheaper than brain scanning, "potentially enabling broader clinical access and efficient population screening", according to the study. At the moment there is no treatment to change the course of Alzheimer's, so any test would have limited use for patients. However, it could be useful in clinical trials. Prof Tara Spires-Jones, from the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, at the University of Edinburgh, said: "These data are very promising and may be incredibly useful in the future, in particular for choosing which people are suited for clinical trials and for measuring whether amyloid levels are changed by treatments in trials." Dr Hye added: "Considering Alzheimer's disease has a very long pre-clinical phase, a truer test will be how well this test performs in independent, healthy, cognitively normal individuals or even in individuals in the early stages of the disease."

Blood test finds toxic Alzheimer's proteins

 

[frigidweirdo]

Vitamin D was discovered to help people not get Alzheimer's....be sure to get plenty of vit. D..

Death too was found to help people not get Alzheimer's, get plenty of death.

 

[BlueGin]

Vitamin D was discovered to help people not get Alzheimer's....be sure to get plenty of vit. D..

Death too was found to help people not get Alzheimer's, get plenty of death.

Really? You planning on euthanizing them all?

 

[frigidweirdo]

Vitamin D was discovered to help people not get Alzheimer's....be sure to get plenty of vit. D..

Death too was found to help people not get Alzheimer's, get plenty of death.

Really? You planning on euthanizing them all?

Actually my point was that people are discovering all these things which supposedly help us stop getting things like this, but usually it's just advertising.