B. Mahley (Abstract 303) reported new data on transgenic mice that could help elucidate the role of ApoE isoforms in neurodegeneration. He began his lecture with an overview of the structure and function of apolipoprotein E (ApoE)...
Alonso et al. (Abstract 590) reviewed the role of tau proteins in tubulin polymerization. There are six tau isoforms in the human brain. Three have three microtubule-binding domains (3R) and the three others have four microtubule-binding domains (4R)...
Perhaps one of the most striking features of the conference this year, reflecting the state of research on AD in general, is the continued absence of a clear consensus on what is the most relevant neuropathological change in AD...
Soto (Abstract 295) presented data documenting the ability of their 11 and 5 amino-acid inhibitors to inhibit initial Aβ peptide aggregation and its ability to dissociate already formed Aβ fibrils in vitro...
Bruce Yankner took time out from his talk on Down's syndrome (Abstract 7) to discuss his recent injection studies in young versus aged rhesus monkeys, published in the July issue of Nature Medicine...
The brains of Alzheimer's disease victims are peppered with neuritic plaques—microscopic, spherical structures containing, among other
things, deposits of β amyloid peptide, dead and dying neurons and evidence
of inflammation...
Synucleins are small cytoplasmic proteins that are found
in synaptic terminals. They are present in senile plaques and Lewy bodies
(features of Alzheimer's disease and familial Parkinson's disease)...
(From Nature Biotechnology press release.) Each cell in our bodies contains 46 chromosomes. But one day far in the future, doctors may give us an extra miniature chromosome containing therapeutic genes to treat disease...
Breeding “knockout” mice is a prized tool for evaluating
the function of genes, but it is a ponderous and costly tool, consuming
many months and thousands of dollars to create each new knockout strain...
A gene on the long arm of chromosome 6 has been linked to
an inherited form of Parkinson’s disease, called autosomal recessive
juvenile parkinsonism (AR-JP)...
Scientists often complain that scientific journals
take too long to review manuscripts, and that subscription prices are unaffordable. A new journal devoted to Alzheimer's disease research, Alzheimer's Reports...
Researchers trying to study the role of presenilin-1
(PS1) in Alzheimer's pathogenesis have been stymied by the fact that presenilin
knockout mice die before birth...
Two recent papers describe the processes involved in
the final stages of apoptotic cell death. During apoptosis, enzymes known as caspases break down cellular proteins, causing severe morphological changes and cell shrinkage...
A pathologic form of prion protein is believed to
cause scrapie, bovine spongiform encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
The normal function of prion protein is yet unknown, but a recent study
by Hans Kretzschmar...