CONFERENCE COVERAGE SERIES
International Conference on Alzheimer's & Parkinson's Diseases 2013
Florence, Italy
06 – 10 March 2013
Tau, α-Synuclein Spread: Crazy Stuff—How Might It Work?
Many researchers believe that neurodegeneration's takeover of one's brain might be driven by pathogenic, misfolded proteins spreading through interconnected neural networks...
Like Star Born of Supernova, Plaque Born of Exploded Neuron?
if Charlie Glabe is right, an exploding neuron does expel material that then triggers the formation of new, stable matter in its surroundings...
Can Dousing PyroGlu-Aβ Treat Alzheimer’s Disease?
Pyroglutamate Aβ is a particularly toxic version of the peptide at the center of AD pathogenesis; in fact, some scientists claim it seeds the formation of plaques...
Field Ramps Up "Mini" Mouse MRI
As magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) resolution improves and more animal models become available, scientists are stepping up their use of mouse MRI...
LRRK Watchers’ Eyes Turn to Inflammation, Autophagy, Kinase
With variants that boost risk for both familial and sporadic Parkinson’s disease, the LRRK2 gene beckons as a prime target for therapy development...
Can Cancer Therapy Be Neurodegenerative Wonder Drug?
A cancer drug newly proposed for neurodegenerative diseases seems to do it all...
Taking Aim at M1: Old Hat or New Target?
Some dismiss it as a therapeutic dead end, but for others, the M1 muscarinic receptor is a target for ongoing drug development research in Alzheimer’s disease...
Dementia in Movement Disorders: What Causes It?
Adding insult to injury, many patients with a movement disorder get dementia, too...
BACE Inhibitors Barrel Forward—Next Hurdles: Safety, Efficacy
After more than a decade of seemingly pushing against a wall, BACE inhibitors for Alzheimer’s disease are finally surging forward...
In Pursuit of Toxic Tau
Neurofibrillary tangles of tau protein litter Alzheimer’s disease brains, but are they actually bad for neurons?...
Sleep Patterns, Circadian Clock Linked to Aβ Oxidative Stress
Disrupted sleep-wake cycles often accompany neurodegeneration, but scientists are unsure why...
From Natural History, A "Renaissance" for Amyloid Hypothesis
Scientists quipped about Florence as a fitting setting for what they perceive to be a resurgence of the amyloid hypothesis after a beleaguered period of setbacks...
Longitudinal Data Stand Out at AD/PD Imaging Satellite
The 11th AD/PD Conference hosted a day-long exchange of new imaging data and discussion of current challenges for the research community in these two disorders...
Brain Imaging in Trials—How to Make It Work?
Researchers debated how to put insights from longitudinal biomarker studies to use in the next wave of therapeutic trials, which increasingly include costly PET and MR scans...
First Stab at Combination Therapy Yields Additive Effect
The last day of the meeting unfolded as is often the case at long conferences: Some of the most anticipated talks spilled their new data before sparse audiences...
Human-Derived SOD1 Antibodies Show Promise in ALS Mice
You could say the concept that endogenous proteins in the body can misfold, aggregate, and spread disease from cell to cell has created infectious enthusiasm for drug development...
Safe at 4 Grams? No ARIA at High Dose of Human Aβ Antibody
Researchers showed new data on how a therapeutic Aβ antibody their company had licensed from the Swiss biotech Neurimmune was measuring up...