Current Alzheimer Research - Volume 8, Issue 4, 2011

Alzheimer disease (AD), a complex neurodegenerative disorder, has become a major public health concern given its rapidly increasing prevalence and the long duration coupled with high cost of care. Successful disease-modifying therapy is still lacking, despite a decade of remarkable advances in our understanding of both the pathology and the risks associated with AD. In recent years, it has become obvious that neuritic plaque Read More

Neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, the neuropathological hallmarks of AD, are not limited to individuals with dementia. These pathologic changes can also be present in the brains of cognitively normal older adults - a condition we defined as Asymptomatic AD (ASYMAD). Although it remains unclear whether these individuals would remain clinically normal with longer survival, they seem to be able to compensate for o Read More

It is increasingly recognized that the correlation between neuropathological lesions and cognition is modest and accounts for about a quarter of the variance of cognition among older adults. Some individuals maintain normal cognitive functioning amidst significant brain pathology, while others suffer varying degrees of cognitive and neurological deterioration that render them dependent and frail. We present data from the Relig Read More

Both Alzheimer's disease type pathology (neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles) and evidence of atherosclerosis and infarcts are common in autopsy specimens from the brains of patients enrolled in longitudinal prospective cohorts; the relative contribution of each of these to overall cognitive function is unclear. In addition whether each of these two forms of brain pathology can accelerate the appearance of the othe Read More

A significant body of evidence has accumulated suggesting that individual variation in intellectual ability, whether assessed directly by intelligence tests or indirectly through proxy measures, is related to risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) in later life. Important questions remain unanswered, however, such as the specificity of risk for AD vs. other forms of dementia, and the specific links between premorbid intelli Read More

Cognitive reserve explains why those with higher IQ, education, occupational attainment, or participation in leisure activities evidence less severe clinical or cognitive changes in the presence of age-related or Alzheimer's disease pathology. Specifically, the cognitive reserve hypothesis is that individual differences in how tasks are processed provide reserve against brain pathology. Cognitive reserve may allow for more flexible Read More

Changes in regional activity levels and network connectivity occur across the lifespan within the default mode network (DMN) of resting brain function. Changes with age are noted in most components of the DMN, especially in medial frontal/anterior cingulate and posterior cingulate/precuneus regions. Individuals with age-related disease such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) Read More

PET imaging agents such as Pittsburgh compound B (PiB) allow detection of fibrillar β-amyloid (Aβ) in vivo. In addition to quantification of Aβ deposition in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease, PiB has also increased our understanding of Aβ deposition in older adults without cognitive impairment. In vivo Aβ deposition has been studied in relation to genotype, structural and functional brain changes, as well as Read More

Background: The Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog) is the most widely used cognitive outcome measure in AD trials. Although errors in administration and scoring have been suggested as factors masking accurate estimates and potential effects of treatments, there have been few formal examinations of errors with the ADAS-cog. Methods: We provided ADAS-cog administration trai Read More

Basal synaptic transmission and activity-dependent synaptic plasticity were evaluated in superior cervical sympathetic ganglia (SCG) of amyloid-β rat model of Alzheimer's disease (Aβ rat) using electrophysiological and molecular techniques. Rats were administered Aβ peptides (a mixture of 1:1 Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42) by chronic intracerebroventricular infusion via 14-day mini-osmotic pumps (300 pmol/day). Control rats receive Read More

Amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides are related to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The search for therapeutic strategies that lower these peptides has mainly focused on the proteolytic processing of the β-amyloid precursor protein (APP), and other post-transcriptional pathways. The transcription factor specificity protein 1 (Sp1) is vital for the regulation of several genes involved in AD including APP and the beta site A Read More

Mitochondria are cytoplasmic organelles responsible for life and death. Extensive evidence from animal models, postmortem brain studies of and clinical studies of aging and neurodegenerative diseases suggests that mitochondrial function is defective in aging and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Several lines of research sugg Read More

It has been demonstrated that the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are associated with inflammatory disorders in the brain. Although the interactions of inflammatory cytokines with neurotrophins have been reported in vitro, the balance change between inflammatory cytokines and neurotrophic factors (NTFs), such as nerve growth factor (NGF), brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and glial cell lin Read More

Missing data are frequent in Alzheimer's disease (AD) trials due to the age of participants and the nature of the disease. This can lead to bias and decreased statistical power. We assessed the level and causes of missing data in a 2-year randomised trial of an AD patient management program (PLASA study), and conducted sensitivity analyses on the primary endpoint (functional decline), using various methods for handling missi Read More

Alzheimer's disease, one of the most common forms of dementia, is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive cognitive decline and affects as many as 5.3 million people in United States alone. Both Alzheimer's and dementia have tripled the cost of health care for elderly people, amounting to about $148 billion each year. Although there have been numerous drugs designed so far, no ideal or successful dr Read More