Frontotemporal Degeneration News and Research

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FAU neuroscientist develops Quick Dementia Rating System comparable to gold standard clinical tests

Determining whether or not an individual has dementia and to what degree is a long and laborious process that can take an experienced professional such as a clinician about four to five hours to administer, interpret and score the test results. A leading neuroscientist at Florida Atlantic University has developed a way for a layperson to do this in three to five minutes with results that are comparable to the "gold standard" dementia tests used by clinicians today.

13 Aug 2015

Available research does not support link between chronic traumatic encephalopathy and sports

Available research does not support the contention that athletes are uniquely at risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) or other neurodegenerative disorders, according to a review in the June issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

21 May 2015

High-skill jobs may increase survival for people with frontotemporal dementia

Doctors, lawyers and other "high level" professionals may have a built-in survival edge if they're diagnosed with the disease frontotemporal dementia (FTD), according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

27 Apr 2015

Hypermethylation serves as protective barrier inhibiting development of ALS, FTD

Penn Medicine researchers have discovered that hypermethylation - the epigenetic ability to turn down or turn off a bad gene implicated in 10 to 30 percent of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) - serves as a protective barrier inhibiting the development of these diseases.

21 Mar 2015

Scientists reveal how a genetic code variation results in devastating brain diseases

New findings reveal how a mutation, a change in the genetic code that causes neurodegeneration, alters the shape of DNA, making cells more vulnerable to stress and more likely to die.

6 Mar 2014

Researchers identify novel therapeutic approach for most frequent genetic cause of ALS

A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research have identified a novel therapeutic approach for the most frequent genetic cause of ALS, a disorder of the regions of the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement, and frontal temporal degeneration, the second most frequent dementia.

10 Nov 2013

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and emotional memories: an interview with Dr. Fiona Kumfor and Assoc. Prof. Olivier Piguet, NeuRA

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a progressive neurodegenerative brain disorder, which affects the frontal and temporal lobes. Unlike other types of dementia, it more commonly occurs in individuals in their 50s and 60s, and is therefore referred to as a “younger-onset dementia”.

9 Aug 2013

Penn researchers find ALS disease progresses in a stepwise, sequential pattern

The motor neuron disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, progresses in a stepwise, sequential pattern which can be classified into four distinct stages, report pathologists with the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in the Annals of Neurology.

20 Jun 2013

Study shows improved detection of dementia paves the way for refined clinical trials testing

A series of studies demonstrate improved detection of the second most common form of dementia, providing diagnostic specificity that clears the way for refined clinical trials testing targeted treatments.

18 Mar 2013

New cost-effective, less invasive MRI method for diagnosis of dementia

A new way to use MRI scans may help determine whether dementia is Alzheimer's disease or another type of dementia, according to new research published in the December 26, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

27 Dec 2012

Alzheimer's disease or FTLD can be effectively tracked using MRI

When trying to determine the root cause of a person's dementia, using an MRI can effectively and non-invasively screen patients for Alzheimer's disease or Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD), according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

27 Dec 2012

Rare form of dementia eats away at personality and language

Michael French suffered from a rare form of dementia. It made him do unwise things like throwing away tax documents, getting a ticket for trying to pass an ambulance and buying stock in companies that were obviously in trouble. He seemed withdrawn and no longer spoke to his wife over dinner. He also lost his job at the consulting firm. This happened in 2006. His wife found he had changed suddenly from the smart, good-natured, hardworking man and was considering divorce when his ailment came into the picture.

8 May 2012

Penn researchers continue efforts to differentiate Alzheimer's from FTLD

Teasing out the exact type or types of dementia someone suffers from is no easy task; neurodegenerative brain diseases share common pathology and often co-occur. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania are continuing efforts to differentiate diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) from frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), as FTLD is often clinically difficult to distinguish from atypical presentations of AD.

21 Apr 2012

ADDF, AFTD invite scientists to apply for Frontotemporal Dementia-specific biomarker grants

The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation and The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration invite scientists from academia and the biotechnology industry worldwide to apply for research grants to develop Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)-specific biomarkers that reflect pathological and clinical differences so that appropriate patients can be selected for clinical trials and responses to investigational treatments can be monitored.

16 Jun 2011

Researchers study role of acetylation in Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have determined that a well-known chemical process called acetylation has a previously unrecognized association with one of the biological processes associated with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. The findings were published in the latest issue of Nature Communications.

1 Apr 2011