Alzheimer's Disease

People in very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease already have trouble focusing on what is important to remember, a UCLA psychologist and colleagues report.

"One of the first telltale signs of Alzheimer’s disease may be not memory problems, but failure to control attention," said Alan Castel, UCLA assistant professor of psychology and lead author of the study.

New research shows that taking statins (cholesterol lowering drugs), can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in addition to promoting heart health. Cholesterol lowering drugs have a protective effect on nerve cells that become damaged in the presence of Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of late-life dementia. An increasing body of evidence has linked assemblies of a common peptide, the amyloid protein, to the disease. While plaques formed from large assemblies of this protein are known to be the eventual result of Alzheimer's, recent evidence suggests that small assemblies — or oligomers — of amyloid are the toxic agents responsible for the disease symptoms.

Researchers have developed a highly detailed x-ray machine that can detect Alzheimer’s disease early. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory developed the x-ray technique in hopes of helping scientists track dense areas of protein that form in the brain of Alzheimer’s disease patients, called amyloid beta (Aß) plaques. The x-ray could aid in the development of drugs to remove the harmful proteins that lead to cognitive decline associated Alzheimer’s disease.

Yesterday the British Medical Journal published research on a new Alzheimer’s test called TYM. The test can be self administered. The new Alzheimer's disease test is designed to evaluate cognitive ability.

The new test is called “Test Your Memory" or TYM. It is not considered a diagnostic test for Alzheimer's. It has only been tested in one clinical scenario, but the researchers feel that it has shown great promise in early screening of the disease and could be used in monitoring response to treatment.

A discovery made by researchers at McGill University and the affiliated Lady Davis Research Institute for Medical Research at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital offers new hope for the early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

A new tool can help predict whether people age 65 and older have a high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Research on the tool is published in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

A large study of 37,000 people shows that the common heart rhythm problem atrial fibrillation increases risk of dementia from Alzheimer’s disease. Data extracted from the Intermountain Heart Collaborative Study, presented May 15, at "Heart Rhythm 2009," the annual scientific sessions of the Heart Rhythm Society in Boston, shows that patients with atrial fibrillation, especially young people, have a significant risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a leading cause of dementia in the United States.

"With lost jobs and foreclosed homes, families caring for those in the moderate to advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease at home are hitting the breaking point. Recalibrating their expectations in ways they never imagined, families are looking for answers and we can't afford to ignore them." Dr. Zoë Ann Lewis stated at recent caregiver conference in Miami. "In this economy we are seeing financial barriers that prevent families from accessing help for their loved ones with Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer’s disease patients who develop delirium, a sudden state of severe confusion and disorientation, are significantly more likely to experience rapid cognitive decline than Alzheimer’s patients who didn’t experience delirium.

“Delirium is a potentially preventable condition,” said study author Tamara G. Fong, MD, PhD, with Harvard Medical School in Boston, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. “Hopefully future studies can determine whether preventing delirium may improve or delay memory problems in Alzheimer’s disease patients.”