Current Alzheimer Research - Volume 11, Issue 2, 2014

The prediction of efficacy in long-term treatment of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) is a major clinical issue, although no consistently strong predictive factors have emerged thus far. The present analyses aimed to identify factors for predicting long-term outcome of galantamine treatment. Analyses were conducted with data from a 24 weeks randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial to evaluate the effica Read More

Increasing evidence suggests that dysregulation of brain insulin/insulin receptor (InsR) and insulin signaling cascade are associated with the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Our group has designed and synthesized a series of multi-target iron chelating, brain permeable compounds for AD. One leading multi-target compound, M30 possesses the neuroprotective N-propargyl moiety of the anti-Parkinsonian Read More

Amyloid beta (Aβ) binding alcohol dehydrogenase (ABAD) is a cellular cofactor for promoting (Aβ)-mediated mitochondrial and neuronal dysfunction, and cognitive decline in transgenic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mouse models. Targeting mitochondrial ABAD may represent a novel therapeutic strategy against AD. Here, we report the biological activity of small molecule ABAD inhibitors. Using in vitro surface plasmon Read More

Two major genotypes are known to affect the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its response to cholinesterase inhibitors: the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) and butyrylcholinesterase genes (BChE). This study analyzed the effects of the BChE and ApoE genotypes on the cortical thickness of patients with AD and examined how these genotypes affect the neuropsychiatric symptoms of AD. AD-drug-naïv Read More

The marginal division (MrD) is a neostriatum subregion that links the limbic system and basal nucleus of Meynert; it is an important subcortical center that is involved in learning and memory. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder and the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. AD clinically manifests as gradually progressive cognitive decline with behavioral disorders. Prior to full dementia, AD patie Read More

Regulator of calcineurin 1 (RCAN1) has been implicated in pathogenesis of neurodegeneration and various cancers. Recently, we showed that RCAN1 expression was elevated in Down Syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease and its expression transpose over induced neuronal apoptosis. As NF-κB is an important transcription factor involved in cell survival and RCAN1 played vital roles in cell viability, we examined whether NF-κB Read More

Analysis of data derived from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) program showed plasma leptin levels in individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's disease (AD) to be lower than those of subjects with normal cognition (NC). Approximately 70% of both men and women with MCI have plasma leptin levels lower than the median values of NC. Additionally, half of these subjects carry at leas Read More

Increased Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) activity is believed to contribute to the etiology of chronic disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, one of the earliest diseases linked to GSK-3 dysfunction. Numerous mouse models with modified GSK-3 have been generated in order to study the physiology of GSK-3, its implication in diverse pathologies and the potential effect of GSK-3 inhibitors. In this study we have characterised Read More

Objective: Postmortem and genetic studies of clinically diagnosed Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) patients suggest that a number of clinically diagnosed FTD patients are actually "frontal variants" of Alzheimer's disease (fvAD). The purpose of this study was to evaluate this hypothesis by combining neuropathological data, genetic association studies of APOE, phenotype-APOE genotype correlations and discriminant analysi Read More

The ventral striatum-nucleus accumbens network has been associated with impulsive behavior in subjects with early cognitive impairment; in Alzheimer's disease (AD) modifications of basal ganglia have been also demonstrated. Moreover, the increase of EEG alpha3/alpha2 frequency power ratio has been investigated as EEG marker in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who will develop AD. In the present st Read More

Deficits in emotional decoding abilities were described in patients with Alzheimer's dementia and amnestic type of mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI). However the pattern of decline and its dependency on the type of emotional stimuli has not been investigated so far. In our study, 5 sets of cartoon-like drawings portraying various human emotions of increasing complexity were presented to patients with very mild and mild A Read More