Yamaguchi (Abstract 1245) presented his theory that very diffuse plaques within nondemented individuals are cleared by astrocytic phagocytosis. He showed many examples of very diffuse Aβ-positive staining...
A new epidemic of "mad tau disease" swept Amsterdam at the workshop on Hereditary Fronto-Temporal Dementia and Pick's disease. Fronto-temporal dementia and
Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17...
While a number of drug companies have been pumping big bucks into creating novel molecules capable of inhibiting formation of Aβ fibrils, along comes Alan Snow and his colleagues...
If you came to Amsterdam hoping to hear a lot of new data on Aβ peptide inhibitors, you might have learned more by window shopping in the red-light district...
Over a decade ago, John Blass and his colleagues proposed that AD was caused by compromised metabolism. Today, this theory has gained support from a convergence of numerous...
The focus of this symposium was the biology and diagnostic value of a recently discovered protein, termed AD7c-neuronal thread protein (NTP), in Alzheimer's disease...
The "great amyloid debate" appeared to resolve at least one issue in the rather contentious arena of defining the critical neuropathological events in AD...
Aβ's fibril-formation processes were revealed in a tour de force of atomic force microscopy by Harper (Abstract 909). The initial species to be detected are four nm globular assemblies...
Three abstracts presented during this session, as well as those by Vincent et al. (Abstract 594) and Arendt et al. (Abstract 595), indicate that cell cycle and mitotic mechanisms may be a key factor in the understanding of tau phosphorylation...
This roundtable session, supported by a grant from SmithKline Beecham and cochaired by G. Wilcock (Bristol, UK) and R. Kumar (Essex, UK), sought to provide a glimpse of future directions for the development of new therapeutic agents for AD...
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...