age-related memory loss tagged posts

A large-scale study led by researchers at Columbia and Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard is the first to establish that a diet low in flavanols—nutrients found in certain fruits and vegetables—drives age-related memory loss.

The study found that flavanol intake among older adults tracks with scores on tests designed to detect memory loss due to normal aging and that replenishing these bioactive dietary components in mildly flavanol-deficient adults over age 60 improves performance on these tests.

“The improvement among study participants with low-flavanol diets was substantial and raises the possibility of using flavanol-rich diets or supplements to improve cognitive function in older adults,” says Adam Brickman, Ph.D...

Obstructing lymphatic vessels (in green) in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease significantly increased the accumulation of harmful plaques in the brain. “What was really interesting is that with the worsening pathology, it actually looks very similar to what we see in human samples in terms of all this aggregation of amyloid protein,” said researcher Jonathan Kipnis, PhD. Credit: Courtesy Kipnis lab

Faulty brain plumbing to blame in Alzheimer’s, age-related memory loss – and can be fixed. By improving the function of the lymphatic vessels, scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have dramatically enhanced aged mice’s ability to learn and improved their memories...

Images: 1. RHEB, Ras homolog enriched in brain  2. BACE1

TSRI Florida scientists have made an important discovery toward the development of drugs to treat age-related memory loss in diseases like Alzheimer’s. They found that reduced levels of a protein called Rheb result in spontaneous symptoms of memory loss in animal models and are linked to increased levels of another protein known to be elevated in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients. Subramaniam’s group investigated the link between Rheb and an important enzyme called BACE1, which is elevated in older adults and people with Alzheimer’s disease.

“We know that Rheb regulates BACE1, which is a major drug target in Alzheimer’s disease,” Subramaniam said...