#106: Defeating Dementia, Installment #12 [29:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (429)

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

Hear these reports:

A New Method Has Been Developed to Efficiently Identify the Apo E4 Genetic Determinants of Alzheimer’s Disease: You may soon have a way to rapidly, accurately and inexpensively determine if your patients have the APO E4 genotype.

Politics of Genetic Testing and Genetic Discrimination: If the new method (above) becomes highly available and affordable, what might be some of the consequences of using the assay on a wide-scale basis? Might a ‘perfect storm’ for a huge wave of medical-political problems be brewing?

Affiris Has Been Granted European Patent for Alzheimer’s Vaccine: Learn why this vaccine has significant potential for safety and efficacy in humans. Hint: less autoimmune attack on the brain.

How A Stressful Life Can Contribute to Development of Alzheimer’s Disease: Acute stress increases corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) from the brain, which results in increases in amyloid plaque.

Alzheimer’s Disease and Memantine: On STAT episode #80 we mentioned that this newer Alzheimer’s drug acts primarily on glutamatergic neurotransmission. We may have been wrong. According to this story Memantine actually works similarly to the drugs that boost acetylcholine-related signaling. So even though Memantine is known to block glutamatergic NMDA receptors, Memantine actually has stronger effects on acetylcholine receptors and weak effects as a glutamate antagonist. And unless Memantine is used in narrow concentration ranges, it has adverse effects on the brain’s neuronal communications. Bottom line: It may be unlikely that glutamate receptor blocker drugs will ever be used successfully on a wide scale in neurology, since perhaps major side-effects should be expected.

Hebrew University Ph.D. Student Named Winner of Kaye Award for ‘Natural Protection’ to Reduce Spread of Alzheimer’s Disease: Who’s this winner? Erez Podoly. And what’s the remarkable source of the ‘natural protection’? Hint: the substance is a protein normal to the body, and the mammalian genus Capra (as in ‘Capricorn’) has come to the rescue to produce it for us.

Rapid-Fire Review Quiz: As icing on the cake we’ll stimulate your synapses with a quiz, covering some of the key points we’ve made during the last 4 weeks.

Next week’s show: Our 2nd installment of Imagery for Neurology - Imaging and images for neurology professionals. It’s the 1st part of a 2-part series during which we interview SPECT neuroimaging expert Dr. Daniel Amen. We think you’re in for a treat. Before the interviews we encourage you to go back and listen to STAT episode #45 when we covered Dr. Amen’s work, and also visit www.AmenClinics.com to see his remarkable SPECT ‘Images of Human Behavior.’ You may also want to listen to episode #54 on the neuroethics of neuroimaging before next week’s show!