4 Memory Systems of the Brain and Dementia
Persons living with Alzheimer's, or a related dementia, cannot remember to remember. As a result, they can no longer either recall or use new memories in the future.Nevertheless, persons living with dementia continue to surprise uswith their stories and memories of the past.Normal aging leads to changes in the brain, especially in areas involved inlearning and memory.Over time,changes in the brain can make it more difficult for an older person to learn new tasks or to retrieve information from memory, such as someone's name.WithAlzheimer's disease or a related dementia, the damage is more severe and ultimately affects larg...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - February 27, 2017 Category: Neurology Tags: alzheimer's symptoms brain care of dementia patients causes of alzheimer's dementia memory care memory systems understanding dementia Source Type: blogs
How prions make you sick
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are rare, but always fatal, neurodegenerative disorders of humans and other mammals. They are characterized by long incubation periods, spongiform changes in the brain associated with loss of neurons, and the absence of host responses. TSEs are caused by infectious proteins called prions. Insight into how prions cause TSEs comes from the observation that exposure of neurons to prions causes retraction of dendritic spines (link to paper).
Early alterations in the nervous system caused by prions include changes in the synapse such as retraction of dendritic spines, the pr...
Source: virology blog - February 24, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information alzheimer's disease dendrite dendritic spine Huntington's disease neuron Parkinson's disease prion prion disease PrPc PrPsc scrapie synapse TSE Source Type: blogs
Identification of a Potential Autophagy Enhancement Drug
Researchers here note the identification of a drug candidate to enhance autophagy, a process of cellular housekeeping responsible for removing damaged proteins and structures in the cell. Enhanced autophagy is associated with many of the interventions known to slow aging in laboratory species, and in at least some cases, such as for calorie restriction, the correct operation of autophagy has been shown to be necessary for extension of life span to take place. Consequently, the research community has for some time shown interest in the development of therapies based on the enhancement of autophagy, but there has been surpri...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 21, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
The Benefits of Hormesis Require Autophagy
Hormesis describes the outcome of a little damage inflicted upon an organism or tissue resulting in a net gain in health and function. Exercise, lack of nutrients, heat, and low levels of toxins or radiation all stress cells, damaging proteins and structures, causing the affected cells to boost their repair and maintenance efforts for some time. If the exposure to damaging circumstances is sufficiently mild and short-lived, then the overall result is an improvement, the additional maintenance activities more than compensating for the damage inflicted. Researchers here demonstrate that this beneficial response requires the ...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 16, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
A Different Take on a Cellular Garbage Catastrophe in Neurodegeneration
The garbage catastrophe view of aging in long-lived cell populations with little turnover, such as those of the brain, is fairly well established. Over-simplifying somewhat, it is a downward spiral in which accumulated molecular damage and metabolic waste in cells makes their maintenance processes ever less efficient, which in turn leads to a faster increase in damage and waste. That ultimately leads to cellular senescence, or programmed cell death, or other forms of dysfunction. Here, researchers present a somewhat different take on a garbage catastrophe, one in which cells sabotage one another by ejecting waste and damag...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 15, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Drug Halts Alzheimer ’s Related Tau Damage in Brain
In some people, the brain protein tau collects into toxic tangles that damage brain cells and contribute to diseases such as Alzheimer ’s.By Alzheimer's Reading RoomResearchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a drug that can lower tau levels and prevent some neurological damage.I thought this information was interesting so I decided to bring this research summary up for all to read.Note: Oligonucleotide treatments have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for two neuromuscular diseases.How to Adapt the Caregiver Brain to Alzheimer's and DementiaSubscribe to the Alzheimer's...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - January 27, 2017 Category: Neurology Tags: alzheimer alzheimers drug alzheimers treatment dementia care health help alzheimer's help with dementia care science tau Source Type: blogs
Aberrant Astrocytes as a Cause of Neurodegenerative Disease
Astrocytes are an important class of support cell in the brain, and one of the most common cell types in brain tissue. They carry out a wide range of tasks, most of which are absolutely essential to the functions performed by neurons. A few years ago, researchers suggested that senescent astrocytes may be responsible for a sizable portion of the progression of neurodegenerative conditions, a proposal expanded and further investigated since then, with a great deal more evidence gathered. Astrocyte behavior in the brain appears to change for the worse with age in a number of ways, not all of which may be connected to cellula...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 19, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Nrf2 Improves Clearance of Damaged Proteins Associated with Neurodegeneration
The protein Nrf2 shows up in a number of places in the study of aging and related aspects of cellular biochemistry. Higher levels of Nrf2 appear to correlate well with longer species lifespan, at least among mammals in the wild, but this is also arguably the case in the various genetically engineered lineages of mice, worms, and flies that exhibit longer lifespans. Until recently the main focus of research into the role of Nrf2 has been the regulation of antioxidants as a response to cellular stress, as occurs due to the metabolic demands of exercise, for example. Of interest here is that Nrf2 levels decline with age, whic...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 28, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Evidence for the Gut Microbiome to Contribute to Parkinson's Disease
In this open access paper, researchers provide evidence in support of the hypothesis that the development of Parkinson's disease starts in the gut, with changes in the microbiome that promote dysfunction:
Neurological dysfunction is the basis of numerous human diseases. Affected tissues often contain insoluble aggregates of proteins that display altered conformations, a feature believed to contribute to an estimated 50 distinct human diseases. Neurodegenerative amyloid disorders, including Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases (PD), are each associated with a distinct amyloid protein. PD is a multifa...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 5, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Stem Cell Research and the Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases
In this open access review paper, the authors make a case for more human trials in the development of stem cell therapies to treat neurodegenerative diseases. An abundance of caution and heavy regulatory burden drives greater use of animal studies than is perhaps merited given the safety data derived from the first of those studies, which in turn leads to high cost and a high rate of failure in development. A more rapid move to human trials after proving safety in animals is one possible solution to this problem. Another is for large improvements in the quality and cost of on-demand growth of small brain tissue sections th...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 1, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Improved Quality Control of Protein Folding Extends Life in Nematode Worms
In the paper I'll point out today, researchers map an efficient form of protein quality control from stem cells and recreate it in somatic cells, producing extended life in nematode worms as a result. Proteins are large, complex molecules, and their correct function depends on the assumption of a precise three-dimensional arrangement after creation, a process known as protein folding. Proteins can and do misfold, however, and in doing so many become actively harmful rather than merely unwanted clutter. A baroque system of chaperone proteins assists in correct folding, as well as identification and removal of misfolded mole...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 28, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
How to Understand the Difference Between Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease
Dementia describes a group of symptoms and is not a disease. Alzheimer's is a disease that evidences symptoms of dementia.Alzheimer's Reading RoomOne of the most frequently asked questions I receive (FAQ) is,What is the Difference Between Alzheimer ’s and DementiaSome believe Alzheimer's is worse than dementia. Some people use the words interchangeably (like me). This of course is the source of much of the confusion about how dementia and Alzheimer's differ.Let's get right to it.Touch and Kindness in Dementia CareBy Bob DeMarcoAlzheimer's Reading RoomSubscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading RoomWhen you to the grocery store ...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - November 10, 2016 Category: Neurology Tags: alzheimers care alzheimers caregiving dementia help for caregivers difference between alzheimers and dementia family caregiving help alzheimer's help with dementia Source Type: blogs
Neuropathology Maintenance of Certification Topics
For those taking the maintenance of certification (MOC) examination at some point in the next few years, the American Board of Pathology (ABP) has published topics that may be covered in the examination. The examination consists of 150 multiple-choice questions, 50 of which are required to be in the a category designated " general neuropathology I " . The remaining 100 questions can be from various categories which the examinee chooses (general neuropathology II, degenerative I& II, developmental/pediatric/congenital I& II, neoplastic I& II, and neuromuscular I& II). The ABP provides an MOC examination...
Source: neuropathology blog - November 2, 2016 Category: Radiology Tags: MOC Source Type: blogs
Ten Years of Induced Pluripotency
It has been a decade since researchers first discovered the recipe for reprogramming ordinary somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells, capable of generating all other cell types in the same way as embryonic stem cells. This was a transformative advance, as the ease of the method allowed near any research group to work with pluripotent cells. Making use of induced pluripotency in research and medicine is still very much a work in progress, however: great strides are being made in the production of cells and tissues for drug testing and other tissue engineering for research use, but the goals of generating patient-...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 29, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
7 Reasons this Book Will Change Lives
You're reading 7 Reasons this Book Will Change Lives, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Travis "Achilles" Williams was a Motivational Fitness Icon who was tragically killed in an accident in March 2015. Though his time was limited, his feats were not. He co-founded Team Fitness, a premier personal-training brand in the Southeast; he co-founded The A-to-Z Project, a charity, and helped multitudes struggling worldwide; and he helped raise a daughter, Azarria, passing on his adventurous spirit, teaching he...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - August 19, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Achillestributeproject Tags: featured health and fitness motivation popular achilles williams atlanta best motivational blogs best self improvement blog biography book change change lives how to change your life inspiration kickstarter listicle persona Source Type: blogs
