#105: Defeating Dementia, Installment #11 [32:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (409)

Promising news and approaches for progressive brain disorders - Part 3 of a 4-part mini series.

Hear these reports:

Omega-3 Fatty Acid Docosahexaenoic Acid Increases SorLA/LR11 - a Sorting Protein with Reduced Expression in Sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD): Reduced LR-11 protein is associated with increased amyloid beta production. Increasing LR-11 levels using the docosohexaenoic acid, DHA may play an important role in preventing Alzheimer’s.

Oxidation, Inflammation and APO E4: We touch upon the importance of each.

Possible New Alzheimer’s Gene Identified: The CDC2 gene is associated with hyperphosphorylation of tau in neurons of the Alzheimer’s brain. The researchers found that the CDC2 allele was associated with a gene dose-dependent increase of total-tau levels in the CSF.

Memory Test Can Reveal Nascent Dementia: The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test is a useful test for identifying patients at high and low risk for cognitive decline. Adding CSF values for beta amyloid (42 amino acid form) increases the ability to differentiate those who will decline - from those who will not decline. Increasing phosphorylated tau levels during cognitive decline suggests that measuring phosphorylated tau may be useful as a longitudinal marker of the early neurodegenerative process in Alzheimer’s.

Can Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease Be Trusted in Clinical Trials? According to the results from this Swedish study, there’s low individual variation in amyloid and tau biomarker levels in Alzheimer’s patients over time. This information may be important for interpreting the validity of decreases in the biomarkers resulting from therapeutic interventions (DHA in the current NIH study, for example?).

New Online Diagnostic Algorithm for Mapping Different Types of Mild Cognitive Impairment: An excellent interactive diagnostic work-up of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Check symptoms from a list of 18 symptoms while the diagnosis is being constructed for you. This is the wave of future web-based clinical tools. It’s described as the operationalization of mild cognitive impairment.

Next week’s show: It will be our 12th installment of Defeating Dementia. During the 4th part of this 4-part mini series we’ll discuss news related to Alzheimer’s treatment and prevention. We’ll also have a review of the 4-part series, with rapid fire questions and answers.