dementia news from FierceBioResearcher

Genomics People who carry the APOE e4 gene--which has been linked to Alzheimer's--are exposed to a significantly elevated risk of postoperative Read more...

Scientists at McGill University are researching the effects of a gene linked to memory enhancement in hopes of developing a new therapy that could be used to improve memory in healthy people as well as treat dementia. In animal studies, researchers found that mice with a defective version of the gene were able to learn faster than others while enhancing the gene's effect was linked to memory impairment. The gene produces a protein that inhibits the physical response associated with …

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Scientists at Japan's National Institute for Longevity Sciences are planning to push an oral Alzheimer's vaccine into clinical trials after reporting that the therapy worked in mice. The institute's director, Takeshi Tabira, says that it may be that the therapy only works at the early stage of development in humans. But when tested in mice, the researchers found that the vaccine reduced beta amyloid in the animals genetically modified to develop Alzheimer's and improved their brain …

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New research appearing in the Journal of Biology shows that even low doses of chemotherapy are killing brain cells and cancer drugs are more malignant to healthy cells than diseased cells. The study focused on the effects of cisplatin, cytarabine and carmustine on rats and found that healthy cells were still dying weeks after therapy. And the harsh therapy not only targeted the dividing cells that spread cancer, but normal cells that weren't dividing. The study at the University …

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