Tag: Alzheimer's

Scientists have discovered that a rare mutation protects against Alzheimer’s disease by dampening a central inflammatory pathway. They recapitulated these results using a small molecule [1]. The woman who beat the odds For the last 40 years, scientists have been studying a massive extended family of about 6,000 people in and around Medellín, Colombia. Many...

In Cell Stem Cell, researchers have described how genetically engineered microglia can be used to deliver therapeutic proteins to the brain. The blood-brain barrier Delivering therapeutic compounds to the brain has a concern that is absent for other organs: the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which retains strict controls over the kinds of compounds that can reach...

Scientists have demonstrated that knocking out part of the cGAS-STING DNA-sensing pathway slows disease progression in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s, calming down microglia and protecting neurons [1]. STING operation Inflammation is central to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease [2], which is accompanied by the accumulation of extracellular plaques of the misfolded protein amyloid beta...

Scientists have created engineered nanostructures that bind monomers and oligomers of harmful amyloid beta (Aβ) protein, preventing them from entering neurons and drastically increasing the cells’ survival in vitro [1]. Don’t let them into cells! Misfolded proteins are thought to be behind diseases like Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The most recognizable hallmark of...

The results of a Phase 1 trial of the well-known senolytic combination of dasatinib and quercetin (D+Q) in patients with Alzheimer's disease have been published in Neurotherapeutics. Building on substantial previous work What Are Senolytics? Senotherapeutics for Senescent CellsSenolytics work by targeting one of several pro-survival pathways that senescent cells use to evade apoptosis and...

Some brain regions are more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease than others. A new study suggests that this might be due to how they uptake cholesterol [1]. Why do some parts of the brain succumb earlier? Despite decades of research and vast amounts of funding, scientists still have limited understanding of how Alzheimer’s disease develops and...