Ultra-long protein fibrils give clues on dementia risk

"AFM technology has the potential to complement conventional biomarker tests and improve the early detection of Alzheimer's"

12-May-2023 - During the course of Alzheimer's disease, protein fibrils appear in the spinal fluid of affected individuals. Empa researchers, together with the Department of Neurology at the Cantonal Hospital in St. Gallen, have now visualized the wide spectrum of protein aggregates from oligomers, ...

Alzheimer’s: modulation of cell membrane influences formation of amyloid-β

Adding long-chain fatty acids can thicken cell membranes and alter the activity of a key enzyme

10-May-2023 - A characteristic feature of Alzheimer’s disease are deposits of the amyloid-β protein, which clumps together to form plaques in the brain. The amyloid-β protein is produced by an enzyme which resides in cellular membranes. A team lead by Prof. Harald Steiner and Dr. Edgar Dawkins from the ...

Artificial intelligence identifies anti-aging drug candidates targeting ‘zombie’ cells

New platform has potential to fuel advances in senolytic anti-aging compounds and longevity research

09-May-2023 - Anew publicationin the May issue ofNature Agingby researchers from Integrated Biosciences, a biotechnology start-up company combining synthetic biology and machine learning to target aging, demonstrates the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to discover novel senolytic compounds, a class ...

Newfound link between Alzheimer’s and iron could lead to new medical interventions

What if amyloid beta plaques aren’t the main cause of Alzheimer’s disease?

24-Apr-2023 - There is a growing body of evidence that iron in the brain may play a role in Alzheimer’s disease. Lending weight to that idea, a new imaging probe has for the first time shown that in the same regions of the brain where the amyloid beta plaques associated with Alzheimer’s occur, there is also an ...

Genetic heritage from the Stone Age influences our chance to have a long life

"Variations in the APOE gene have the highest genetic contribution to longevity"

14-Apr-2023 - Researchers at Kiel University have studied the evolutionary history of the longevity gene APOE. To do this, they analysed data obtained from human skeletons that are up to 12,000 years old. Our lifestyle has a very big influence on our life expectancy, such as our level of fitness, or whether we ...

New insights into the development of Alzheimer's disease

Researchers investigate the influence of oxidative stress on peptide aggregation

07-Mar-2023 - Despite considerable advances in research, there is still no cure for many age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. One hypothesis for the development of Alzheimer’s is the aggregation of peptides, i.e. their “clumping”, in the brains of people with the disease. But stress has also been ...

Degrading modified proteins could treat Alzheimer’s, other ‘undruggable’ diseases

New technique specifically targets and breaks apart certain proteins — rather than just interfering with them

03-Mar-2023 - Certain diseases, including Alzheimer’s, are currently considered “undruggable” because traditional small molecule drugs can’t interfere with the proteins responsible for the illnesses. But a new technique that specifically targets and breaks apart certain proteins — rather than just interfering ...

Uncovering Astonishing Benefits of Beef, Chicken, and Pork: New Antioxidants Found!

20-Feb-2023 - Imidazole dipeptides (IDPs), which are abundant in meat and fish, are substances produced in the bodies of various animals, including humans, and have been reported to be effective in relieving fatigue and preventing dementia. However, the physiological mechanism by which IDPs exhibit these ...

Decoding cellular zipcodes

Researchers suspect that neurodegenerative diseases occur when messenger RNA goes astray in the neuron

02-Feb-2023 - With a new method, Marina Chekulaeva is able to identify “zipcodes” that assign a destination to mRNAs. She has now presented her method in the journal Nature Neuroscience. In neurodegenerative diseases, the loss of neurons leads to a variety of malfunctions. In Alzheimer’s disease, for example, ...

AI detects rare forms of dementia

Researchers use new techniques to detect patterns in imaging data and enable early diagnosis

16-Jan-2023 - Researchers at MPI CBS and University of Leipzig Medical Center have used new artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques to detect rare forms of dementia on MRI images. In their study, the researchers show that AI can automatically recognize patterns in patient imaging data that ...