Alzheimer’s disease tagged posts

Highlights •Early neural stem cell NSC impairment in 3xTg-AD mice correlates with SVZ subventricular zone niche lipid accumulations •Similar lipid accumulations are found in the SVZ in postmortem human AD brains •Accumulating SVZ lipids are locally generated, oleic acid-enriched triglycerides •Inhibiting oleic acid signaling or synthesis rescues NSC defects in 3xTg-AD mice Credit: Fernandes et al. Aberrant Lipid Metabolism in the Forebrain Niche Suppresses Adult Neural Stem Cell Proliferation in an Animal Model of Alzheimer’s Disease. Cell Stem Cell, 27 August 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2015.08.001

For the 1st time since the disease was described 109 years ago, researchers have discovered accumulations of fat droplets/ lipids in the brain of patients who died from the disease and h...

The picture shows toxic Alzheimer’s amyloid beta molecules landing on a fake cell membrane, wrapped around a silver nanoparticle. A laser, with help from the silver particle, lights up the molecule to reveal its structure. Credit: Copyright Debanjan Bhowmik; Credit to Debanjan Bhowmik, TIFR, Mumbai

The elusive toxic form of the Alzheimer’s molecule has now been observed, during its attempt to bore into the outer covering of a cell decoy, using a new method involving laser light and fat-coated silver nanoparticles.

“Everybody wants to make the key to solve Alzheimer’s Disease, but we don’t know what the lock looks like. We now have a glimpse of something which could be the lock...

Preventive strategies, targeting diet, drugs, body chemistry, mental health, pre-existing disease, and lifestyle may help to stave off dementia. This could be particularly important, given that, as yet, there is no cure, they say. The researchers wanted to look at the factors associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease in a bid to determine the degree to which these might be modified and so potentially reduce overall risk.

They trawled key research databases, looking for relevant studies published in English from 1968 up to July 2014. Out of almost 17,000 studies, 323, covering 93 different potential risk factors and more than 5000 people, were suitable for inclusion in the analysis...

It could lead to the development of new drugs to treat the disease. The study found that the protein fragment, sAPPα, inhibits the proteolytic enzyme BACE1. Increased BACE1 activity contributes to production of the amyloid beta aggregates and plaques that are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s.

“Because sAPPα inhibits the BACE1 enzyme, it may be possible that it can be used to help prevent potentially dangerous increases in BACE1 activity, and thus prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease,” A/Prof Varghese John.

The protein fragment sAPPa is normally produced by neurons and is involved in maintenance of memory...