When Gene Wilder died Monday of Alzheimer's disease, his fans were shocked and saddened to learn that such a brilliant comic mind had been taken by such a cruel disease. Wilder kept his condition secret for three years, not out of fear of the stigma sometimes associated with Alzheimer's, but for fear of disappointing his young fans who brightened when they spotted "Willie Wonka." Wilder wasn't alone in his fight against the brain-robbing condition. Currently, Alzheimer's, which has no known treatment, affects 5.4 million Americans. Characteristics of Alzheimer’s include amyloid plaque deposits - abnormal clusters of "sticky" protein fragments - and the formation of neurofibrillary tangles in
A new drug trial that some researchers are calling the most promising yet in the fight against Alzheimer’s suggests it may be possible to clear the brain of the amyloid protein that is characteristic of the disease. The study was small and researchers caution that it’s far too soon to declare victory against a fatal disease that robs people of their memories and ability to function in daily life. “This is the best news we’ve had in my 25 years of doing Alzheimer’s research,” says Stephen Salloway, a professor of clinical neurosciences and psychiatry at Brown University and a co-author of the paper. The longer an early-stage Alzheimer’s patient took the drug aducanumab, and the higher the dose, the less clogged their brain was with amyloid a year later.
Alzheimer’s disease routinely appears at or near the top of diseases most feared by Americans. It’s terrifying to contemplate and devastating when it happens. The memory loss that is a common symptom of Alzheimer’s begins with loss of function at the synaptic connections between neurons and progresses to the destruction of the neurons themselves. Research carried out by a team at University College London and recently reported in the journal Current Biology details how molecular changes at the synapse damage memory and suggests ways that the memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s may be prevented and possibly reversed. The Wnt and Dkk1 proteins A protein called Wnt plays an important role in
