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Plaque on the brain doesn't sound good, but the condition may not be as crippling as once thought. Mice with the gummy deposits-- usually a symptom of Alzheimer's disease--can still have normal memories, according to a new study. The findings suggest a novel target for Alzheimer's drugs and a new way of understanding how the disease ravages the brain, say the researchers. Alzheimer's is thought to be caused in part by sticky build up of a toxic peptide called â amyloid, produced when the amyloid precursor protein (APP) is cut in two. Recent research, however, has shown that early signs...

Close window Published online: 21 April 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060417-10 Death of Alzheimer victim linked to aluminium pollutionBrain autopsy of pollution victim rekindles contaminant fears.Michael Hopkin Aluminum can accumulate in the twists of deformed proteins that characterize Alzheimer's disease.© SPL Fears of a link between aluminium and Alzheimer's disease have been reignited by the case of a British woman who died of the illness 16 years after an industrial accident polluted her local drinking water. An autopsy on Carole Cross's brain showed that she was suffering from a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's when she died in May 2004, and...

An unusual number of deaths among patients in a large study of Aricept, the most popular drug to treat Alzheimer's disease, is raising concern among federal drug officials and some disease experts. In the study, of 974 patients who suffered from dementia related to heart disease, 11 deaths occurred among the patients taking Aricept, while no deaths occurred among those taking dummy pills. The Food and Drug Administration is examining the results of the study, said Susan Bro, an agency spokeswoman. The agency undertook a quick review of earlier Aricept studies and found no cause for concern, Ms. Bro said....

AP Biotechnology Writer SAN FRANCISCO — It's tragedy enough that Pat Williams' mother has Alzheimer's disease. But Williams is also terrified because her chances of inheriting the disease are much better than average. So Williams eagerly enrolled her 90-year-old mother last year in a massive, 1,600-patient, 18-month clinical trial testing an experimental drug made by the biotechnology company Myriad Genetics Inc. The drug, called Flurizan, slowed the mind-robbing disease in some of the 128 patients with mild Alzheimer's participating in a smaller test. Based on those results, the company has gambled millions of research dollars on the largest-ever Alzheimer's drug...

MONTREAL, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Canadian researchers said Friday they have uncovered a natural defense mechanism to Alzheimer's disease. Not surprisingly, it involves stem cells -- those derived from bone marrow. In Alzheimer's patients, plaque forms in the brain, but the brain's resident immune cells, called microglia, can't fight off the substance. The plaque can then kill off the brain's neurons, or nerve cells. However, microglia harvested from bone marrow stem cells do appear capable of defeating the plague, said researchers from the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval and the research centre at Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec, Canada....

ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK -- Older anti-psychotic drugs are no safer and might even be worse for the elderly than newer ones that the government warned about earlier this year - both raise the risk of death, a study suggests. The Food and Drug Administration asked drug makers in April to add warnings to the labels of newer anti-psychotics because studies showed the drugs nearly doubled the risk of death for older patients with dementia. These drugs are widely used to treat the aggressive behavior, delusions and hallucinations sometimes experienced by those with dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at Harvard's...

SITTING the other day in front of Picasso's rapturous "Girl Before a Mirror" at the Museum of Modern Art, Rueben Rosen wore the dyspeptic look of a man with little love for modern art. But the reason he gave for disliking the painting was not one you might expect to hear from an 88-year-old former real estate broker. "It's like he's trying to tell a story using words that don't exist," Mr. Rosen said finally of Picasso, fixing the painter's work with a critic's stare. "He knows what he means, but we don't."This chasm of understanding is one that Mr....

On Oct. 4, screen legend and former president of the National Rifle Association Charlton Heston turned 82 years old. He still lives at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. - 90210 - with his wife of over 50 years, Lydia Clarke Heston. Tony Makris of Alexandria, Virginia's Mercury Group public relations firm, a longtime friend who handles NRA public relations, tells NewsMax that he had dinner with Heston and family just last Sunday. The famous actor, Makris said, is in the midst of a "quiet retirement." In 2002, Heston was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. His last major public appearance was...

Despite widespread belief in its usefulness, vitamin E supplements are no more effective than sugar pills for delaying the onset of Alzheimer's disease in people with mild memory changes, a study published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests. The research also suggests that for certain patients the drug Aricept, previously shown to moderate the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease after it is diagnosed, may also work to delay its onset. The researchers studied 769 patients with mild cognitive impairment, or M.C.I., the mental deterioration that is often the precursor of full-blown Alzheimer's. Patients were randomly assigned to...

In Preliminary Study, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Team Finds IVIg Therapy May Improve Cognitive Function in Alzheimer's Patients (This original title is too long for FR.) Delivered Antibodies Bind to Disease-Causing Amyloid Proteins NEW YORK (April 11, 2005) — In what could prove to be an important development in the search for a treatment of Alzheimer's disease, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center physician-scientists say the results of an initial (Phase I) clinical study provide encouraging evidence that antibodies derived from human plasma can capture the beta-amyloid protein in blood and exert positive effects on patients' thinking abilities. Beta-amyloid is a central component...

  Receiving the best form of vitamin E is critical in obtaining the health benefits of this essential vitamin. One recent study showed that gamma-tocopherol, (which is the form that is highest in food) may actually be superior to alpha-tocopherol (the type that is found in most supplements) in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers speculate this may explain the absence of vitamin E protection against Alzheimer's reported in some previous studies with the use of vitamin E supplements. Most of the previous studies have used vitamin E supplements that only contained alpha-tocopherol. To reach this conclusion, researchers examined whether...

Confused issues Stem cell research could soon give us a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, right? Wrong, says The Times science correspondent Ask most people why scientists are so keen to experiment with stem cells and it will not be long before they mention Alzheimer’s disease. Dementia patients might be elderly but they have become the poster kids for this new and controversial branch of medical technology. When Chinese researchers claimed this week to have grown human brain cells in culture for the first time, many reports hailed the work as an important step towards a cure for Alzheimer’s. The...

Curry Ingredient, curcumin, may help  Treat Alzheimer's   Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that occurs gradually over time and results in memory loss, unusual behavior, personality changes and a decline in thinking abilities. It affects more than 4 million Americans and many millions across the globe. However, the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease among adults ages 70 to 79 in India is more than four times less than the rate in the United States. Why such a significant difference? Some researchers believe the answer for this drastic disparity in Alzheimer's patients found in India is a direct...

Meat Increases the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease “Extensive evidence points to the rich Western diet as the fundamental cause of Alzheimer’s disease: … Worldwide, the incidence of AD [Alzheimer’s disease] is more common among people who follow meat- and dairy-centered diets, than among those people who eat a more plant-based diet.” —Dr. John McDougall, McDougall Wellness Center Indeed, a flood of research shows that the toxins in meat, including chicken and fish, increase your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, while the antioxidants in vegetables help prevent this deadly disease. Click here to learn more. In the wake of former President...

It happened without warning, early one day last summer as they prepared to go out. Gloria Rapport's husband raised his arm to her, fist poised. "He was very close to striking me," she said. What had provoked him? "Nothing," she said. "I asked him to get in the car." Mrs. Rapport's husband, Richard, 71, has Alzheimer's disease. His forgetfulness and confusion began about nine years ago, not long after they married. More recently, emotional troubles have loomed. Anxiety came first: he suddenly feared being left alone in the house. Outbursts of anger followed. The man she had always known to...

The first call Sheldon Goldberg got on his first day as president of the Alzheimer's Association was not from a patient or a doctor but from Michael D. Bromberg, chairman of the Capitol Health Group, a well-connected Washington lobbying firm. "He said he had a problem," Goldberg recalled, "and the problem was the position of the Alzheimer's Association." Bromberg represented an industry that stood to make millions if PET scans -- already used to help diagnose some cancers -- were to be reimbursed by Medicare as a test for Alzheimer's. Medicare officials had already said no, citing inadequate evidence that...

Election officials should supervise voting in nursing homes and other long-term-care facilities and give brief mental tests to residents with dementia to determine whether they are competent to vote, a panel of experts in law and medicine is recommending. The experts are also urging changes in voting laws involving mental competence, which vary by state, to conform to a 2001 court decision that helped define a person's "capacity to vote." Voting by people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia is "an emerging policy problem," the experts warn, in an article being published today in the Journal of the...

Election officials should supervise voting in nursing homes and other long-term-care facilities and give brief mental tests to residents with dementia to determine whether they are competent to vote, a panel of experts in law and medicine is recommending. The experts are also urging changes in voting laws involving mental competence, which vary by state, to conform to a 2001 court decision that helped define a person's "capacity to vote." Voting by people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia is "an emerging policy problem," the experts warn, in an article being published today in the Journal of the...

Scientists are reporting that, for the first time, they have made an artificial prion, or misfolded protein, that can, by itself, produce a deadly infectious disease in mice and may help explain the roots of mad cow disease. The findings, being reported on Friday in the journal Science, are strong evidence for the so-called "protein only hypothesis," the controversial idea that a protein, acting alone without the help of DNA or RNA, can cause certain kinds of infectious diseases. The concept was introduced in 1982 by Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a neurology professor at the University of California in San Francisco,...

Stem Cells Not the Priority for Alzheimer'sNewsMax.com WiresFriday, June 11, 2004 NEW YORK – Despite the high profile that Nancy Reagan and others have given the idea of using embryonic stem cells to treat Alzheimer's disease, advances are likely to come faster from other approaches. Experts cite other more promising efforts that in five to 10 years may be used to fight the disease that led to President Reagan's death. "I just think everybody feels there are higher priorities for seeking effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease and for identifying preventive strategies," said Marilyn Albert, a Johns Hopkins University researcher who...