Amyloid Plaque News and Research

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Late-life depression could become major risk factor for developing Alzheimer's

Many people develop depression in the latest stages of life, but until now doctors had no idea that it could point to a build up of a naturally occurring protein in the brain called beta-amyloid, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

10 Jun 2014

Suppressing hyperactivity of calcium channels alleviates familial Alzheimer's disease

In 2008, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania showed that mutations in two proteins associated with familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) disrupt the flow of calcium ions within neurons.

15 May 2014

Researchers develop gene therapy reversing memory loss in mice with early-stage Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's disease is the first cause of dementia and affects some 400,000 people in Spain alone. However, no effective cure has yet been found. One of the reasons for this is the lack of knowledge on the cellular mechanisms which cause alterations in nerve transmissions and the loss of memory in the initial stages of the disease.

25 Apr 2014

Scientists develop new mechanism that helps decode amyloid plaque formation in brains of Alzheimer's patients

University of Michigan researchers have learned how to fix a cellular structure called the Golgi that mysteriously becomes fragmented in all Alzheimer's patients and appears to be a major cause of the disease.

18 Mar 2014

Plaque in brain could guide treatment decisions for patients at risk for Alzheimer's

Brain imaging using radioactive dye can detect early evidence of Alzheimer's disease that may predict future cognitive decline among adults with mild or no cognitive impairment, according to a 36-month follow-up study led by Duke Medicine.

11 Mar 2014

Scientists identify critical regulator of molecule deeply involved in progression of Alzheimer's

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a critical regulator of a molecule deeply involved in the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

24 Jan 2014

Scientists identify critical regulator of molecule involved in progression of Alzheimer’s disease

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a critical regulator of a molecule deeply involved in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

23 Jan 2014

Study: Cholesterol levels linked to early signs of Alzheimer's disease in the brain

High levels of "good" cholesterol and low levels of "bad" cholesterol are correlated with lower levels of the amyloid plaque deposition in the brain that is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, in a pattern that mirrors the relationship between good and bad cholesterol in cardiovascular disease, UC Davis researchers have found.

30 Dec 2013

Study: Brain blood vessel cells may be therapeutic targets for Alzheimer's disease

A study in mice shows how a breakdown of the brain's blood vessels may amplify or cause problems associated with Alzheimer's disease. The results published in Nature Communications suggest that blood vessel cells called pericytes may provide novel targets for treatments and diagnoses.

14 Dec 2013

Merck provides update on MK-8931 investigational oral therapy for Alzheimer’s disease

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today provided an update on the development program for MK-8931, a novel investigational oral β-amyloid precursor protein site-cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor.

11 Dec 2013

Immunologists receive $4.8M grant to target multiple diseases by manipulating enzyme

Immunologists Barbara A. Osborne and Lisa M. Minter at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, as part of a multi-institution research team, will share a five-year, $4.8 million National Cancer Institute grant to target multiple diseases including cancer, Alzheimer's and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) by manipulating an enzyme that activates over 100 different protein substrates in the body.

10 Dec 2013

Scientists receive 2013 Horwitz Prize for discoveries on how brain calculates location, navigation

Edvard and May-Britt Moser of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and John O'Keefe, from University College London have been awarded the 2013 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for discoveries that have illuminated how the brain calculates location and navigation.

9 Dec 2013

Scientists receive 2013 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for advancements in field of neuroscience

For discoveries about how the brain calculates and remembers where it is—which could be part of the foundation of memory—Columbia University will award the 2013 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize to Edvard I. Moser, PhD, and May-Britt Moser, PhD, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway, and John Michael O'Keefe, PhD, of University College London in the UK.

6 Dec 2013

International researchers report significant findings on vascular abnormality outside the brain

Studies on Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia have long focused on what's happening inside the brain. Now an international research team studying Alzheimer's and mild cognitive impairment is reporting potentially significant findings on a vascular abnormality outside the brain.

27 Nov 2013

Elderly people with hardening of arteries are more likely to have beta-amyloid plaques in brain

Even for elderly people with no signs of dementia, those with hardening of the arteries are more likely to also have the beta-amyloid plaques in the brain that are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the October 16, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

17 Oct 2013

Epigenetic regulation linked with pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease

New evidence presented at the 26th ECNP Congress linking epigenetic regulation with Alzheimer's disease may one day lead to new early diagnostic tests and even novel treatment options for the most common form of dementia.

7 Oct 2013

Neurodyn acquires all assets related to new drug candidate Memogain from Galantos Pharma

Neurodyn Inc. announced today that it has acquired from Galantos Pharma GmbH, Mainz, Germany all assets related to their Alzheimer's prescription drug candidate - Memogain. Memogain has completed an extensive preclinical development program and is ready to proceed into Phase 1 clinical trials in late 2013. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

5 Sep 2013

Alzheimer’s drug trial: an interview with Geoffrey Kempler, Chairman & CEO Prana Biotechnology

Approval for the IMAGINE trial was granted by the Austin Health Research Ethics Committee in November 2011, with the first patients dosed in March the following year. However, well before the trial was approved, PBT2 had already shown promise in significantly changing Abeta levels in spinal fluid while improving cognition in a previous 12-week trial conducted in 2006.

28 Aug 2013

Results of post-mortem brain tissue study using Navidea's NAV4694 imaging agent presented at AAIC 2013

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on precision diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, today announced that researchers at McGill Center for Studies in Aging, Douglas Research Institute and Montreal Neurological Institute presented results of a post-mortem brain tissue study using Navidea's investigational Fluorine-18 labeled β-amyloid imaging agent, NAV4694, during the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Boston, MA.

23 Jul 2013

Accumulation of plaques in brain may serve as powerful biomarker for early detection of cognitive decline

The trajectory of amyloid plaque buildup-clumps of abnormal proteins in the brain linked to Alzheimer's disease-may serve as a more powerful biomarker for early detection of cognitive decline rather than using the total amount to gauge risk, researchers from Penn Medicine's Department of Radiology suggest in a new study published online July 15 in Neurobiology of Aging.

16 Jul 2013