Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) News and Research

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Researchers identify motor neuron toxin associated with ALS

An international team of investigators has discovered that an inorganic polyphosphate released by nerve cells known as astrocytes in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) contributes to the motor neuron death that is the signature of these diseases.

10 Mar 2022

Damage to general intelligence brain networks makes it difficult for dementia patients to cope with change

People with dementia struggle to adapt to changes in their environment because of damage to areas of the brain known as 'multiple demand networks', highly-evolved areas of the brain that support general intelligence, say scientists at the University of Cambridge.

9 Mar 2022

Novel molecular pathway shared by two neurodegenerative disorders discovered

Scientists from two independent research teams have discovered how the mislocalization of a protein, known as TDP-43, alters the genetic instructions for UNC13A, providing a possible therapeutic target that could also have implications in treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and other forms of dementia.

28 Feb 2022

Research reveals why a common genetic variant worsens outcomes for people with ALS and FTD

A pioneering new study led by UCL and National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists has revealed, for the first time, why a common genetic variant worsens disease outcomes for people with the devastating adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

24 Feb 2022

Relationship between SARS-CoV-2 neurotropism and Alzheimer's disease

In a new study, researchers evaluated the neurotropism of SARS-CoV-2 and its impact on COVID-19 patients with and without neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease.

3 Feb 2022

Single-patient pilot study shows the ability of antisense oligonucleotide to suppress mutant ALS gene

Using a short, synthetic chain of chemically modified nucleotides engineered in the RNA Therapeutics Institute at UMass Chan Medical School, Robert H. Brown Jr., DPhil, MD, Jonathan Watts, PhD, and colleagues have shown the ability to suppress mutant forms of an ALS gene known as C9ORF72 in a single-patient pilot study.

24 Dec 2021

Skin cells could provide better understanding of molecular mechanisms of frontotemporal dementia

A new study from the University of Eastern Finland suggests that skin fibroblasts from frontotemporal dementia patients may be useful in investigating underlying disease mechanisms as well as in biomarker and drug research.

12 Aug 2021

Restoring cholesterol levels could be a new therapeutic approach for diseases linked to TDP-43 protein

Researchers in Singapore have discovered that brain cells cannot maintain the cholesterol-rich myelin sheath that protects and insulates neurons in the absence of a protein called TDP-43.

4 Aug 2021

Biomarker of chronic cellular stress is associated with Huntington's disease, shows study

A new University of California, Irvine-led study finds that the persistence of a marker of chronic cellular stress, previously associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), also takes place in the brains of Huntington's disease (HD) patients.

24 Jun 2021

Study demonstrates profound anhedonia in people with frontotemporal dementia

People with early-onset dementia are often mistaken for having depression and now Australian research has discovered the cause: a profound loss of ability to experience pleasure - for example a delicious meal or beautiful sunset - related to degeneration of 'hedonic hotspots' in the brain where pleasure mechanisms are concentrated.

12 Apr 2021

Study finds surprising link between ALS, FTD and Huntington's disease-associated mutation

A study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health has made a surprising connection between frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), two disorders of the nervous system, and the genetic mutation normally understood to cause Huntington's disease.

5 Dec 2020

Research projects receive BTCA grants to develop novel drugs for various diseases

Five research projects with exceptional promise to deliver new life-changing and health-altering therapies have received the inaugural Blavatnik Therapeutics Challenge Awards (BTCA) at Harvard Medical School.

30 Oct 2020

Drug for liver cirrhosis shows potential to treat dementia and motor neuron disease

A drug used to treat cirrhosis of the liver may be an effective treatment for a form of Dementia and motorneuron disease, scientists have discovered.

14 Sep 2020

Investigational drug may reduce protein buildup and neurological decline linked to ALS, FTD

An investigational drug that targets an instigator of the TDP-43 protein, a well-known hallmark of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), may reduce the protein's buildup and neurological decline associated with these disorders, suggests a pre-clinical study from researchers at Penn Medicine and Mayo Clinic.

8 Sep 2020

Inhibiting STING activation could be new therapeutic strategy to treat ALS and FTD

Alberto Yáñez Boyer, Ramón y Cajal researcher at BIOTECMED (Interdisciplinary Research Structure in Biotechnology and Biomedicine) and the Department of Microbiology and Ecology at the University of Valencia (UV), participates in a study on the C9orf72 gene and its mutations in the immune system.

28 Aug 2020

New criteria to differentiate between frontotemporal dementia and LATE disease

Working with their colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers at the University of Kentucky have found that they can differentiate between subtypes of dementia inducing brain disease.

24 Aug 2020

Scientists gain new insight into the pathological mechanisms behind two neurodegenerative diseases

An international team led by Emory scientists has gained insight into the pathological mechanisms behind two devastating neurodegenerative diseases.

6 May 2020

Researchers identify a new risk factor for multiple neurodegenerative diseases

Scientists at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), have identified a new risk factor for multiple neurodegenerative diseases.

28 Apr 2020

A physically and mentally active lifestyle can slow familial frontotemporal dementia

A physically and mentally active lifestyle confers resilience to frontotemporal dementia (FTD), even in people whose genetic profile makes the eventual development of the disease virtually inevitable, according to new research by scientists at the UC San Francisco Memory and Aging Center.

8 Jan 2020

Inflammatory processes drive progression of neurodegenerative brain diseases

Inflammation drives the progression of neurodegenerative brain diseases and plays a major role in the accumulation of tau proteins within neurons.

20 Nov 2019