Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston revealed that an FDA-approved medication called rosiglitazone that is used to treat insulin resistance in diabetics also enhances learning and memory. This discovery could improve cognitive performance for those with Alzheimer’s disease. By studying genetically engineered mice designed to serve as models for Alzheimer’s, “the scientists believe that the drug produced the response by reducing the negative influence of Alzheimer’s on the behavior of a key brain-signaling molecule.” The molecule in question is called extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). In the brains of Alzheimer’s patients as well as the mice in the study, this molecule becomes hyperactive, which leads to improper synaptic transmission between neurons thereby interfering with learning and memory. “Rosiglitazone brings ERK
Tag: alzheimer’s
Loss of Chewing Ability May Be Linked to Dementia
Researchers from the Department of Dental Medicine and the Aging Research Center (ARC) at Karolinska Institutet and from Karlstad University in Sweden suggest that the loss of chewing ability may be linked to cognitive decline and a higher risk of dementia.Dementia is a serious loss of global cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging. It is not considered a single disease, but rather a set of signs and symptoms, in which affected areas of cognition may be memory, attention, language, and problem solving.The study randomly selected a nationwide sample of 577 participants aged 77 or older to investigate tooth loss, chewing ability and cognitive function. Results showed that individuals that experienced more difficulty chewing hard foods were more at
A Simple Blood Test for Alzheimer’s Disease on the Horizon
William Hu, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at Emory University School of Medicine and collaborators at the Universityof Pennsylvania and Washington University, St. Louis are getting closer to uncovering an in inexpensive and very convenient test for Alzheimer’s disease. This type of test has been studied for several years; however reliability of results and an inability to replicate the same results have prevented such a test from being discovered. Now, scientists have finally found a group of markers that hold up in statistical analyses in three independent groups of patients.Basically, they measured the levels of 190 proteins in the blood of 600 participants. The subjects studied included healthy volunteers and individuals that had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). “A subset of the 190