Nikolaos K. Robakis on Ordered-subsets linkage analysis detects novel Alzheimer disease loci on chromosomes 2q34 and 15q22.

COMMENT This paper suggests new genomic loci that may affect early- and late-onset AD 0 nikos.robakis

Nikolaos K. Robakis on APP-BP1 mediates APP-induced apoptosis and DNA synthesis and is increased in Alzheimer's disease brain.

COMMENT This paper suggests a peptide that may have therapeutic potential. It also suggests the interesting possibility that a ubiquitin-like pathway may participate and promote the toxic effects induced by overexpression of WT or mutant APP. 0 nikos.robakis

lynn hoeffner on Memantine One Step Shy of US Approval

COMMENT Sirs, thank goodness this medication has been approved. As such a powerful country and force in this world, it seems we are always behind Europe and other countries especially when it comes to care of the elderly. My ninety three year old father has a qua

Mary Reid on Gleevec for Alzheimer's?

COMMENT Further to my comment of October 8, I note the study by Boucher et al. (1) in which they find that

Fred Van Leuven on Prion Infection: Is RNA in the Mix, After All?

COMMENT Aggregation of protein tau is strongly catalysed by polyanions, including mRNA but also polyglutamate and heparin and glycosaminoglycans... That is in vitro! In vivo, in the cytosol or axon, protein tau probably sees so much polyanions that one wonders ho

Manuel Menendez-Gonzalez on New Marker for AD on the Horizon?

COMMENT I agree with thinking this is a fascinating study specially due to the knowledgment it provides about AD physiopathology and putative treatments, but I don´t think this is a useful test for the daily clinical management of patients with possible AD becaus

Vincent Marchesi on Presenilin—Two Heads Better Than One?

COMMENT These are interesting experiments, but I think we have to be careful about interpreting experimetal results like these too literally. To say that cleavages occur at one "side" of a membrane, or in the "middle", so to speak, give the mo

David Holtzman on New Marker for AD on the Horizon?

COMMENT This paper shows that immunostaining for CCR1 is increased in AD brains and tends to increase as the clinical stage of dementia is more severe. The staining appears to be relatively specific for brains that have Aβ deposition. This marker, if it can be me

Benjamin Wolozin on Dopamine-dependent neurodegeneration in rats induced by viral vector-mediated overexpression of the parkin target protein, CDCrel-1.

COMMENT This paper by Dong and colleagues yields an impressive result that overexpression of CDCrel1 (also known as SEPT5) leads to the selective neurodegeneration of dopaminergic neurons. CDCrel1 is of unknown function, but was the first identified target protei

Robert Bowser on Too Much of a Bad Thing: Parkin Target Induces PD

COMMENT A critical, frequently asked question for those studying neurodegenerative diseases is what makes particular neuronal subpopulations vulnerable during the disease. While there are many proposed hypotheses regarding this issue, it has been expected that pa

Jorge Busciglio on Glutamate and amyloid beta-protein rapidly inhibit fast axonal transport in cultured rat hippocampal neurons by different mechanisms.

COMMENT microtubule destabilization and impaired axonal transport (see ARF comment). In addition, other studies

Mary Reid on Gleevec for Alzheimer's?

COMMENT I would like to bring to your attention to my poster last July. I also forwarded my proposal to the developers at Novartis at that time, detailing reasons why Gleevec may well prove to be a beneficial treatment for those with Alzheimer's disease and

Patrick May on CB1 cannabinoid receptors and on-demand defense against excitotoxicity.

COMMENT This is an interesting paper examining the potential role of the endocannabinoid system in affording protection against excitotoxic seizures elicited by kainic acid. Clearly, mice lacking CB-1 receptors exhibit more severe behavioral seizures in response

Daniel Michaelson on ApoE4 impairs hippocampal plasticity isoform-specifically and blocks the environmental stimulation of synaptogenesis and memory.

COMMENT Reply to Thomas Ohm: We agree with Dr. Ohm's comments regarding the conceptual difficulties

Thomas G. Ohm on ApoE4 impairs hippocampal plasticity isoform-specifically and blocks the environmental stimulation of synaptogenesis and memory.

COMMENT Levi et al. conducted an interesting study on the influence of the two human ApoE isoforms E3 and E4 on behavior and neurochemistry of mice. As science often does, this paper raises new questions and points to new aspects. The first thing you learn from t