Insights into olfactory disorders in Alzheimer's disease

19-Aug-2025 - A diminishing sense of smell can be one of the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease, even before cognitive impairment occurs. Studies by researchers at the DZNE and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) provide new insights into this phenomenon. According to the study, the brain's immune ...

Smartphone-assisted “scavenger hunt” identifies people at risk for dementia

Perspectives for early detection

11-Oct-2024 - Researchers from DZNE and Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg have identified individuals with increased risk for dementia using mobility data, recorded during a smartphone-based wayfinding task on the university campus. The findings, reported in the journal “PLOS Digital Health”, show the ...

New target for Alzheimer's therapies found

Researchers discover link between the protein medin and Alzheimer's disease

22-Nov-2022 - The protein medin is deposited in the blood vessels of the brains of Alzheimer's patients along with the protein amyloid-β. Researchers from DZNE have discovered this so-called co-aggregation. They have now published their observation in the journal Nature. "Medin has been known for over 20 ...

Alzheimer’s: Protective Immune Cells Active Decades Before Symptom Onset

Boosting the Brain’s Defenses Could Help Combat the Disease

23-Mar-2022 - In individuals with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease, the immune cells of the brain – the “microglia” – start exerting a protective effect up to two decades before the first symptoms appear. A team from Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE) and ...

Highly Responsive Immune Cells Seem to be Beneficial for the Brain

New Insights into the Mechanisms of Neurodegenerative Diseases.

16-Feb-2022 - Findings by researchers from Germany support the view that hyperactive immune cells in the brain can have a protective effect in the course of neurodegenerative diseases. Experts from Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) and LMU ...

Viral infections could drive neurodegeneration

25-Oct-2021 - Some viral diseases could possibly contribute to neurodegeneration. This is reported by researchers of the DZNE in the journal "Nature Communications". Their assessment is based on laboratory experiments in which they were able to show that certain viral molecules promote the intercellular ...

In neurodegenerative diseases, brain immune cells have a “ravenous appetite” for sugar

The interpretation of certain brain scans needs rethinking

15-Oct-2021 - At the beginning of neurodegenerative disease, the immune cells of the brain – the “microglia” – take up glucose, a sugar molecule, to a much greater extent than hitherto assumed. Studies by the DZNE, the LMU München and the LMU Klinikum München, published in the journal Science Translational ...

Investigational gene regulation therapy lowers levels of Tau protein in the brain and could protect against Alzheimer's

Zinc finger technology as a starting point for future therapies

25-Mar-2021 - Researchers at the DZNE (Germany), at Massachusetts General Hospital (USA) and at the genomic medicine company Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. tested a novel gene regulation approach to treat brain diseases such as Alzheimer's in laboratory studies. It leverages zinc finger proteins, which ...

Risk gene for Alzheimer’s has early effects on the brain

Results of a study in 82 young adults

21-Sep-2020 - A genetic predisposition to late-onset Alzheimer’s disease affects how the brains of young adults cope with certain memory tasks. Researchers from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the Ruhr-Universität Bochum report on this in the scientific journal “Current Biology”. ...

Immune cells against Alzheimer’s?

Researchers investigate new therapeutic approach

11-Mar-2020 - Scientists at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich and Denali Therapeutics (South San Francisco, CA, USA)have developed an approach to stimulate immune cells of the brain in such a way that they might possibly provide better ...