A new blood-based test for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) has shown promising results distinguishing between people with and without the disease and may even be able to detect it as early as 20 years before the onset of cognitive symptoms. The research, by an international team of investigators included 1,402 participants,…

An international team of researchers has developed a new genetic risk score that could dramatically improve screening for osteoporosis. The team, which includes scientists from the University of Sheffield, developed the gSOS scoring system based on clinical information from more than 340,000 individuals who donated health data to the UK…

Ageing drives development of many of the world’s most common fatal diseases, including heart disease, dementia, and cancers, which makes this a hot research topic. However, it’s also a very challenging because aging is so varied and influenced by so many biological and other factors. To get dependable data, researchers…

A Queen Mary University of London-led team of scientists harnessed induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology and hairs donated by individuals with Down syndrome (DS), to develop a rapid in vitro cell-based screening system that recapitulates the primary features of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression, which they suggest could be used…

Apolipoproteins (Apos) are proteins that transport lipids by binding to them. They also can act as enzyme co-factors and cell-surface receptor ligands. Without proper function of apolipoproteins in the body, a variety of disorders would appear. For example, ApoE can influence your risk for late-onset type of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).…

International research shows that mutations in the gene encoding ubiquilin-2, linked with the serious neurologic condition amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), can stop the body from discarding misfolded proteins that can build up and destroy nerve cells, and may also cause symptoms of dementia. The scientists hope that their research can…

The early and accurate diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s is critical to providing quality care to afflicted individuals. Yet, with one of the largest populations of individuals aging into the high-risk years for Alzheimer’s, improved diagnostic tools are imperative. In recent years, scientists and clinicians have focused their…

A multi-institutional team of researchers from the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), have identified a rare genetic variant that sigifnicantly incresases the risk of developing diseases like Alzheimer disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and frontotemporal…

A new study from investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School sheds new light on the risk of developing long-term diseases and overall human lifespan. The researchers found that the combined effects of rare, damaging mutations present at birth have a negative impact on healthspan and longevity.…

The Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s Disease (A4) prevention study was created in 2014 to test whether the monoclonal antibody drug solanezumab reduces cognitive decline if given to individuals with elevated amyloid levels before signs of the disease are apparent. In its first publication, the group’s findings support the idea…

New findings from a team of researchers led by investigators at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) detail how stress-induced changes in protein connections in the brain contribute to the cognitive decline seen in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Amazingly, the researchers were able to reverse this malfunctioning protein network and its associated cognitive…

Researchers in Japan have identified a new quality control system that cells use to remove damaged and potentially toxic proteins—including amyloid β (Aβ) that is associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD)—from the extracellular space. Their studies showed that the chaperone protein Clusterin shuttles misfolded proteins directly into cells for degradation, via…

Studies by researchers at University of South Florida Health (USF Health) Morsani College of Medicine have found that a protein known as β-arrestin2 increases the accumulation of the neurotoxic tau tangles that cause several forms of dementia, by interfering with the process that cells use to remove excess tau from…

Biomarkers are indicators of biological events. They are either present, or not; they may increase or decrease; or simply change form. They relate to normal biological states, the presence of disease (or the risk of it), or in response to intrusions into the body, including medical treatment or injury. Above…

New research from the UK has revealed that the build-up of proteins in neuronal cells—the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease—might be affecting the activity of genes implicated in the disease. This novel discovery may help shed more light on how and why these proteins build up, and how they lead to…