Researchers have uncovered a new clue to the cause of Alzheimer's disease. The brains of people with the memory-robbing form of dementia are cluttered with a plaque made up of beta-amyloid, a sticky protein. But there long has been a question whether this is a cause of the disease or a side effect. Also involved are tangles of a protein called ...

Nutritional supplement as effective as red wine in preventing amyloid beta plaque build upA compound found in grape seed extract reduces plaque formation and resulting cognitive impairment in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease, new research shows. The study appears in the June 18 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. Lead study author ...

The body's immune system could be harnessed to fight back against Alzheimer's disease, research suggests. Turning off a part of the immune system cleared away harmful brain deposits and improved memory, the mouse study found. US scientists, reporting their discovery in the journal Nature Medicine, said it was like a "vacuum ...

FOR thousands of years, people have sought substances that they hoped would boost their mental powers and their stamina. Leaves, roots and fruit have been chewed, brewed and smoked in a quest to expand the mind. That search continues today, with the difference only that the shamans work in pharmaceutical laboratories rather than forests. ...

A number of chronic diseases are in fact caused by one or more infectious agents. For example, stomach ulcers are caused by Helicobacter pylori, chronic lung disease in newborns and chronic asthma in adults are both caused by Mycoplasmas and Chlamydia pneumonia, while some other pathogens have been associated with atherosclerosis. The ...

Alzheimer's disease begins to damage the brain years before the first symptoms appear. Scientists are furiously searching for a way of picking up the devastating disorder in those first stages, in the hope that prompt treatment might slow its progression and perhaps someday, with new treatments, stop it altogether. Now a California ...

Howard Hughes Medical Institute and MIT neuroscientists found that both environmental stimulation and a class of drugs called histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors improved memory and learning in mice. They said this indicated such drugs represen...

I should point your attention to another good NYAS presentation summary from recent days: ''No consensus emerged on the single best way to tackle Alzheimer's disease. But in a symposium such as this, designed to stimulate discussion and debate, that's probably a good sign: the diversity of opinions and approaches indicates that neurodegenerative ...

A computer system that can rival some doctors' ability to diagnose early-stage Alzheimer's is being trialled in the US. It analyses a person's the P300 brain waves response to a number of simple sound-based tests....

The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation reports on new understanding of the role of ApoE4 in the development of Alzheimer's: ''ApoE4 (along with other apolipoproteins) attaches itself to a particular receptor on the surface of brain cells. That receptor, in turn, adheres to a protein known as amyloid precursor protein. The brain cells then ...