#142

Did you watch the movie Still Alice?
Spooky…

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#143

No, but I’ll watch it tonight on Amazon Prime. Thanks for the tip.

#144

Blood tests may have an edge spotting Alzheimer’s

Driving the news: A study featured at an international Alzheimer’s conference this week in Philadelphia showed that blood tests allow primary care doctors to accurately detect the characteristics of Alzheimer’s.

  • There are at least 16 blood tests in development, though none has won FDA approval yet.
  • Primary care is “the first, and in many cases, the final point of entry for these patients,” said study co-author Sebastian Palmqvist, an associate professor at Lund University in Sweden. “Looking at the future, I think this is where the blood test can have the largest impact.”
  • Doctors in the study used a blood test made by C2N Diagnostics, which performs as well as an FDA-approved spinal fluid test for detecting molecular signs of Alzheimer’s.

https://www.axios.com/2024/07/29/alzheimers-blood-tests-detection-treatment

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4797094-blood-test-has-a-90-accuracy-rate-in-determining-whether-memory-loss-is-due-to-alzheimers-study/

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#145

A key protein that helps assemble the brain early in life also appears to protect the organ from Alzheimer’s and other diseases of aging.

A trio of studies published in the past year all suggest that the protein Reelin helps maintain thinking and memory in ailing brains, though precisely how it does this remains uncertain. The studies also show that when Reelin levels fall, neurons become more vulnerable.

There’s growing evidence that Reelin acts as a “protective factor” in the brain, says Li-Huei Tsai, a professor at MIT and director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory.

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#146

One quick addition on the ApoE testing - is that Boston Heart Lab does the swab for $50. I believe it does require a physician order. It is available by cheek swab or blood, both the same price.

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#147

Can infections cause Alzheimer’s? A small community of researchers is determined to find out

Following up tantalizing links between pathogens and brain disease, new projects search for causal evidence

This week, thousands of researchers are flocking to downtown Philadelphia for what’s billed as the largest international conference dedicated to Alzheimer’s disease. But several kilometers away a much smaller group congregated for an alternative meetup: a daylong dive into whether and how pathogens might cause the fatal dementia.

Saturday’s gathering of about 80 scientists on the city’s periphery is something of a metaphor for where the idea sits in the larger Alzheimer’s community, long dominated by the view that the plaque-forming brain protein amyloid beta drives the disease. But the links between pathogens and Alzheimer’s appear to be slowly tightening. The COVID-19 pandemic lent momentum to the field: debilitating neurological symptoms, such as those in some people with Long Covid, reinforced that a virus can chronically disrupt the brain.

https://www.science.org/content/article/can-infections-cause-alzheimer-s-small-community-researchers-determined-find-out

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#148

Combination of NMN, Probiotic, and Prebiotic Reduce Alzheimer’s Brain Plaques by 67%

“Researchers from the University of Jinan in China show that combining NMN, L. plantarum , and lactulose reduces Aβ plaque burden in a mouse model of AD. They show this in the cerebral cortex — the brain region associated with consciousness, thinking, and memory — and the hippocampus — the brain region associated with consolidating memories. Aβ plaque burden was reduced by 67% in the cerebral cortex and 60% in the hippocampus.”

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#149

University of Jinan, China :grimacing:, a mouse model (how many times has Alzheimer’s been cured on mice already?) and the outdated notion of plaques…

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#150

Yet another Chinese paper mill publication. I’ll be waiting for Western verification.

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#151

Insomnia drug may lower levels of Alzheimer’s proteins

  • In a small study, a drug called suvorexant that is approved to treat insomnia reduced levels of proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease in cerebrospinal fluid.
  • Researchers are launching a clinical trial to further test the drug in people at risk of developing dementia.
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#152

Here are 2 new alzheimer’s research tools that look quite promising. I’ve posted about organ-on-a-chip before but this uses “cultured human iPSC-derived cortical neurons on patterned microelectrode arrays”. So both allow a closer examination of in vitro cells and a more accurate test bed for new therapies.

And this one is fascinating, using cell reprogramming to transform skin cells into neurons while retaining their aged characteristics.

#153

It would still be pretty much irrelevant.

#154

Q&A: Signs that cognitive changes are worrisome — and what you can do about it

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#155

This is my concern. I feel perfectly healthy and I think it’s normal aging but certainly there are 4 things I would like to function like they did 10-15 years ago. 1) Eyesight 2)Hearing 3)Sense of Smell/Taste 4)Mental Acuity
Mental sharpness does seem to fluctuate and I’m not sure why…but 6-8 months ago, I had a period - a month or so - of extreme mental sharpness when memory retrieval was instantaneous. Whether it was supplements or something else, I don’t know, but certainly no big lifestyle/diet/sleep changes. Mental decline seems like a normal thing even without any dementia. Using your brain certainly helps but memory retrieval always declines some, doesn’t it?..if you live to be very old.

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#156
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#157
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#158

Systems genetics identifies methionine as a high risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease …suggesting that lowering methionine levels in humans may be a preventive or therapeutic strategy for AD

related

Methionine is an essential amino acid found in rich quantities in average American diet such as meats, fish and eggs. Excessive consumption of such food often exceeds the normal requirement of the methionine in our body; which found to be related to the development of neurodegenerative disorders. However, the mechanistic pathways of methionine’s influence on the brain are unclear. The present study is focus on the effects of high methionine, low folate and low vitamin B6/B12 (HM-LF-LV) diet on the dysfunction of neuronal and vascular specific markers in the brain.

High methionine, low folate and low vitamin B6/B12 (HM-LF-LV) diet causes neurodegeneration and subsequent short-term memory loss - PMC.

Cystinuria_handout.pdf (377.2 KB)

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To bacon or not to bacon: Nitric Oxide, L citrulline and so much conflicting info!
#159

IMG_8439
IMG_84391179×1774 224 KB

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02535-x

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#160
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#161

Low HbA1c (<6%) was associated with higher risk of dementia!

We also analyzed the association between mean HbA1c and ADRD risk. Participants were categorized based on mean HbA1c during baseline (<6%, 6%-6.9%, 7%-7.9% [reference], 8%-8.9%, 9%-9.9%, ≥10%). In unadjusted and fully adjusted models, lower mean HbA1c (<6%: HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.17-1.40) and higher mean HbA1c (≥8.0%) were significantly associated with increased risk of ADRD (eTable 3 in Supplement 1).
These results suggest that in addition to preventing hypoglycemia, maintaining higher HbA1c TIR over time may decrease dementia incidence.

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