Copyright 2008 Medical News Today Latest Alzheimer's / Dementia News From Medical News Today. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/alzheimers/ admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin) editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors) en-us Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/125052.php A Queen's University Belfast academic has been awarded £228,000 to further his research into how Alzheimer's disease progresses. Dr Stephen Todd who works in the Department of Geriatric Medicine at Queen's, has been announced as the only Beeson Ireland 2008 scholar after a transatlantic panel peer-reviewed his proposal. Alzheimer's / Dementia Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/125111.php Medical and life scientists will be able to share information collected from many thousands of cases thanks to a digital network aunched at The Australian National University in Canberra The ANU node of BioGrid was launched at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Garran Road, ANU by Senator Kate Lundy. The ACT node of the BioGrid network is a collaborative venture between ANU and BioGrid Australia. IT / Internet / E-mail Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124942.php The circadian rhythm that quietly pulses inside us all, guiding our daily cycle from sleep to wakefulness and back to sleep again, may be doing much more than just that simple metronomic task, according to Stanford researchers. Working with Siberian hamsters, biologist Norman Ruby has shown that having a functioning circadian system is critical to the hamsters' ability to remember what they have learned. Without it, he said, "They can't remember anything. Neurology / Neuroscience Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124839.php Almost 190,000 Australians have dementia and as Australia's population ages, dementia becomes a bigger challenge for doctors, their patients and carers. According to the National Prescribing Service Limited (NPS), there are limited benefits to using cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine in the treatment of patients with dementia drug therapy. Alzheimer's / Dementia Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124815.php Procaine, a medication that functions as a topical anesthetic normally, has been touted as an anti-aging drug that might prevent or even reverse dementia. However, a new Cochrane Review suggests that the risks of bad side effects outweigh any benefit. Alzheimer's / Dementia Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124722.php 1. SAP97 and Dendritic Branching Weiguo Zhou, Lei Zhang, Xiong Guoxiang, Jelena Mojsilovic-Petrovic, Kogo Takamaya, Rita Sattler, Richard Huganir, and Robert Kalb Last week we learned that blocking expression of the AMPA receptor GluR1 subunit in motor neurons reduces dendrite growth, leading to impaired motor function. This week, Zhou et al. begin to unravel the molecular mechanisms tying GluR1 to activity-dependent dendritic growth. Neurology / Neuroscience Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124606.php Today, Françoise Grossetête (France), John Bowis (United Kingdom), Katalin Levai (Hungary), Jan Tadeusz Masiel (Poland) and Antonios Trakatellis (Greece) joined forces to issue a call to the European Commission and the Council of Ministers to recognise Alzheimer's disease as a European public health priority and to develop a European Action Plan on Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's / Dementia Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124433.php Researchers are conducting studies on an experimental medication to block nerve damage and inflammation in the brain that can lead to progressive memory loss and behavioral changes in people with Alzheimer's disease. Current Alzheimer's disease therapies focus on improving symptoms versus attacking the root of the disease progression; 400 volunteers with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease are needed to further test this new approach. Alzheimer's / Dementia Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124402.php People who occasionally forget an appointment or a friend's name may have a loss of brain volume, even though they don't have memory deficits on regular tests of memory or dementia, according to a study published in the October 7, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study involved 500 people age 50 to 85 with no dementia who lived in the Netherlands. Neurology / Neuroscience Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124427.php People with mild to moderate dementia are cared for largely by family physicians as well as the patient's own family, and management of care can be complex and challenging. Alzheimer's / Dementia Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124272.php The Empire State Stem Cell Board has awarded research planning grants to Albert Einstein College of Medicine and to Montefiore Medical Center. The grants, totaling $238,000, are part of $2 million in grants announced by State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines, M.D. Stem Cell Research Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124129.php Thought processes made visible: An international team of scientists headed by Mazahir Hasan of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg has succeeded in optically detecting individual action potentials in the brains of living animals. Neurology / Neuroscience Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124235.php deCODE genetics (Nasdaq: DCGN) announced the filing of an investigational new drug (IND) application for DG071, the company's novel small-molecule modulator of phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4), with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Alzheimer's / Dementia Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124121.php At Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Third Annual Drug Repositioning Summit on Monday, October 6 in Boston, the audience is scheduled to hear, as a Keynote Presentation, the story of how an individual physician has charted an entirely new course for a therapeutic which is already one of the most successful of all time. Neurology / Neuroscience Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/124089.php A new group of health professionals and experts will oversee the development of a national dementia plan for Wales, Health Minister Edwina Hart announced today. The group, chaired by Ian Thomas, Director of Alzheimer's Society in Wales, will produce a draft plan for consultation by April 2009. According to Alzheimer's Society, there are 37,000 people with dementia in Wales. Alzheimer's / Dementia Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/123847.php Cellumen, Inc. announced an agreement with the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) to apply Cellumen's Cellular Systems Biology (CSB) technology to create a cellular model of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's / Dementia Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/123819.php Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) announced it will begin enrolling patients in a second Phase III study of LY450139, a gamma-secretase inhibitor being investigated as a potential treatment to delay the progression of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. The study, called IDENTITY 2, is expected to enroll 1,100 patients from 22 countries. Alzheimer's / Dementia Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/123824.php Alzheimer's disease has been acknowledged as a European priority by the Council of the European Union. At its meeting of 26 September, the Competitiveness Council adopted conclusions on a "common commitment by the Member States to combat neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer's". In its conclusions, the Council recognises that: 1. Alzheimer's / Dementia Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/123628.php The Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex has received over £27,000 from the Alzheimer's Research Trust. Dr Jody Mason, a lecturer within the Department, will use this grant to undertake research regarding dementia patients. Dr Mason explains: 'In neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, aggregation (or clumping) of proteins into toxic fibrils (or chains) is considered to be the key pathogenic event. Alzheimer's / Dementia Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/123254.php Lewy body dementia is a progressive brain disease and the second leading cause of degenerative dementia in the elderly. Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), which is the clinical name, accounts for up to 20 percent of all dementia cases, or 800,000 patients in the United States. Lewy body dementia shares characteristics with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Alzheimer's / Dementia Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/123293.php Researchers from Nottingham's two universities are joining forces to develop a simple blood test to diagnose Alzheimer's disease. The £200,000 study, funded by the leading charity the Alzheimer's Research Trust, will aim to find out whether 'biomarkers' in blood could be used to identify someone with Alzheimer's. A biomarker is a term for something present in the body which can indicate disease, such as a certain protein or molecule. Alzheimer's / Dementia Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/122927.php As the United Nations General Assembly convenes this week, the Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA) is encouraging foreign leaders to collaborate on a global effort to advance a dialogue about minimizing the impact of Alzheimer's disease on the 26 million people worldwide currently living with the disease and those who will be affected in the future. Eric J. Alzheimer's / Dementia Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/122914.php The FTD Support Forum (ftdsupportforum.com) has just registered it's 1000th new member world-wide since being established 9 months ago. This on line support group's mission is to provide a place for safe and secure communications for people who have been diagnosed with FTD and those who care for loved ones with FTD. Members are dedicated to supporting one another in a sensitive, respectful and sincere manner. Alzheimer's / Dementia Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/122848.php Despite overwhelming support for early Alzheimer's disease (AD) screening and detection, there are striking differences between intentions and actual behavior, according to a new online survey of 1,040 adults age 55 and over titled, "Alzheimer's Disease: Current Attitudes, Perceptions and Knowledge." Nearly 95 percent agree that they would encourage a loved one to seek early diagnosis upon suspecting signs of AD. Alzheimer's / Dementia Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:00:00 PDT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/122825.php AlzheimerVideoNews.comdebuts with a World Alzheimer's Day 2008 Special Report, discussing the most significant developments which occurred in 2008 in the field of Alzheimer's disease research. The new report, available in both a video news report and in print at AlzheimerVideoNews. Alzheimer's / Dementia