Alzheimer's Disease News and Research

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks of daily living. In most people with AD, symptoms first appear after age 60. AD is the most common cause of dementia among older people, but it is not a normal part of aging. Dementia refers to a decline in cognitive function that interferes with daily life and activities. AD starts in a region of the brain that affects recent memory, then gradually spreads to other parts of the brain. Although treatment can slow the progression of AD and help manage its symptoms in some people, currently there is no cure for this devastating disease.

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Francis Collins on supporting NIH and finding common ground

This week, KFF Health News' "What the Health?" presents a conversation with Francis Collins, former National Institutes of Health director and White House science adviser.

2 Jan 2025

Brain mapping reveals cell-specific aging patterns

Based on new brain mapping research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), scientists have discovered that not all cell types in the brain age in the same way.

1 Jan 2025

Study reveals how societal inequities influence brain aging and dementia

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have collaborated with international partners to explore if societal inequality affects our brain.

27 Dec 2024

SPLICER shows promise in Alzheimer's and other diseases

A new gene editing tool that helps cellular machinery skip parts of genes responsible for diseases has been applied to reduce the formation of amyloid-beta plaque precursors in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign report.

23 Dec 2024

Researchers identify key mechanism linking brain stress to Alzheimer's disease

Researchers with the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) have unveiled a critical mechanism that links cellular stress in the brain to the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

23 Dec 2024

Microglial cells may hold key to Alzheimer's plaque removal

Immune cells in the brain called microglia can partially break down large amyloid plaques characteristic of Alzheimer's disease by latching on to them, forming a sort of external stomach and releasing digestive enzymes into the space, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

23 Dec 2024

New Alzheimer's guidelines provide comprehensive framework for diagnosis

We have entered a new era of improved and emerging biologically-based diagnostic biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and AD-related neurodegenerative disorders (ADRD) that are rapidly impacting evaluation and care paradigms in every clinical setting: primary care, specialty care and dementia subspecialty care.

23 Dec 2024

Healthy lifestyles linked to younger brains

Using an AI tool, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have analyzed brain images from 70-year-olds and estimated their brains' biological age.

20 Dec 2024

Drinking more coffee linked to reduced cognitive decline in people with atrial fibrillation

Drinking multiple cups of coffee a day may help prevent cognitive decline in people with atrial fibrillation (AFib or AF), according to new research published on Dec. 14, 2024 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

19 Dec 2024

Vanderbilt researchers achieve milestone in Alzheimer's drug development

Researchers at the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, a clinical stage biotech within the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences, have detailed the successful drug discovery of a phase I single ascending dose clinical trial of VU319, a drug for memory loss in people with Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.

19 Dec 2024

Chronic gut infection may play role in Alzheimer’s disease progression

Arizona State University and Banner Alzheimer's Institute researchers, along with their collaborators, have discovered a surprising link between a chronic gut infection caused by a common virus and the development of Alzheimer's disease in a subset of people.

19 Dec 2024

Miniature VR headsets unlock insights into spatial memory and brain disorders

In recent years, mice have entered a new arena – virtual reality – and now Cornell University researchers have built mini VR headsets to more fully immerse them.

19 Dec 2024

Structural sexism may accelerate memory decline in women

Women born in the most sexist U.S. states experience faster memory decline in later years compared to women born in the least sexist states, a new study by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons has found.

18 Dec 2024

Taxi and ambulance drivers show reduced Alzheimer’s mortality

Taxi drivers and ambulance drivers, whose jobs require frequent spatial and navigational processing, have the lowest levels of death due to Alzheimer's disease compared with other occupations, finds a study in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.

18 Dec 2024

Heat waves pose unique threats to people with Parkinson's and dementia

As 2024 is set to end as Earth's hottest year on record – breaking the previous record set in 2023– a UCLA Health researcher says people living with neurodegenerative diseases will be uniquely vulnerable to worsening heat waves because of a higher risk of heat-related complications.

17 Dec 2024

Researchers receive NIH grant to study dementia caused by cerebral small vessel disease

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been awarded $7.5 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate a form of dementia caused by cerebral small vessel disease, the second-leading cause of dementia after Alzheimer's disease.

17 Dec 2024

Driving occupations could lead to lower rates of death from Alzheimer's disease

A new study raises the possibility that jobs that require frequent spatial processing - such as figuring out a taxi route or the best way to navigate to a hospital - could lead to lower rates of death from Alzheimer's disease.

17 Dec 2024

Promising ultrasound therapy for Alzheimer's disease licensed to new start-up

A promising ultrasound therapy to potentially restore brain function in people with Alzheimer's disease has been licenced to a new start-up spun out of The University of Queensland.

16 Dec 2024

Breathing rhythms coordinate brain waves to strengthen memory during sleep

Just as a conductor coordinates different instruments in an orchestra to produce a symphony, breathing coordinates hippocampal brain waves to strengthen memory while we sleep, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

16 Dec 2024

TTUHSC researcher to uncover mechanisms that regulate gene expression in Alzheimer's disease

More than six million Americans are affected by Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia marked by accumulation of amyloid-β within the brain. Amyloid-β is a relatively small protein that forms toxic plaques in the brain contributing to the harmful effects of Alzheimer's disease.

14 Dec 2024