MIT scientists have developed a new dye that could offer noninvasive early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, a discovery that could aid in monitoring the progression of the disease and in studying the efficacy of new treatments to stop it.
Today, doctors can only make a definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer's-currently the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States-through a postmortem autopsy of the brain. "Before you can cure Alzheimer's, you have to be able to diagnose it and monitor its progress very precisely," said Timothy Swager, leader of the work and a professor in MIT's Department of Chemistry. "Otherwise it's hard to know whether a new treatment is working or not."

To that end, Swager and postdoctoral associate Evgueni Nesterov, also from the MIT Department of Chemistry, worked with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh to develop a contrast agent that would first bind to the protein deposits, or plaques, in the brain that cause Alzheimer's, and then fluoresce when exposed to radiation in the near-infrared range. The new dye could allow direct imaging of Alzheimer's plaques through a patient's skull.

Some of the first noninvasive techniques for diagnosing Alzheimer's involved agents labeled with radioactive elements that could enter the brain and target disease plaque for imaging with positron emission tomography (PET). However, these methods were expensive and limited by the short working lifetime of the labeled agents.

Swager and colleagues developed the new dye, called NIAD-4, through a targeted design process based on a set of specific requirements, including the ability to enter the brain rapidly upon injection, bind to amyloid plaques, absorb and fluoresce radiation in the right spectral range, and provide sharp contrast between the plaques and the surrounding tissue. The compound provided clear visual images of amyloid brain plaques in living mice with specially prepared cranial windows.

To make the technique truly noninvasive, scientists must further refine the dye so it fluoresces at a slightly longer wavelength, closer to the infrared region. Light in the near-IR range can penetrate living tissue well enough to make brain structures visible. Swager likens the effect to the translucence produced when one holds a red laser pointer against the side of a finger.

"This procedure could be done in a chamber with a photodetector and a bunch of lasers, and it would be painless," he said, adding that infrared fluorescence and other optical techniques will lead to a whole new class of noninvasive medical diagnostics. Swager says fluorescing dyes like NIAD-4 could be ready for clinical trials in the near future.

"What we have is a dye that lights up when it binds to amyloids that form in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. It's a completely new transduction scheme-a way of translating a physical or chemical event that's invisible to the naked eye, into a recognizable signal. Further wavelength adjustments in these dyes will allow us to perform in vivo analysis through human tissue."...Click to read entire article...MIT's Department of Chemistry

Scientists discovered the Klotho protein, which extends male rodents' lives by 31 percent....The protein which controls the production of insulin is capable of extending lifespan in laboratory mice, recent studies have shown. Immortality, however, costs too much money. US researchers currently study the protein, which, as scientists assume, can slow down the ageing process.

Scientists discovered the Klotho protein, which extends male rodents' lives by 31 percent, if the latter produce quite large quantities of the substance from the protein. Sexual discrimination apparently exists in the natural world too: the lifespan of even old female mice could be extended by some 20 percent. Dr. Makoto Kuro-o from the University of Texas presented the results of the research on the pages of Science magazine.

Beta cells of the pancreas secrete insulin in response to a rising level of circulating glucose. Insulin controls the sugar constituent in blood; it is an extremely important substance for diabetes patients. A group of scientists named the new substance as Khloto after a Greek goddess of fate that spins the thread of life. According to the legend, all Greek gods, including Zeus, were scared of the goddess, for she could easily break the thread.

Burbank Leader:..Click to read...opinionI work as a case manager on behalf of senior citizens in the city of Los Angeles. As part of my job, I attend seminars to further my knowledge.

Recently, I attended an "Elders at Risk Task Force" meeting sponsored by the Veterans Administration and the Los Angeles City Attorney's office.

advertisement

I especially wanted to attend this particular meeting as it pertained to elder abuse in nursing homes. The three-person panel included a representative from a nonprofit legal organization, the ombudsman program, and the Department of Health Services.

What I heard did not make me feel any better about our nursing home system or the Department of Health Services, for that matter.

...Click to read...By combing through dozens of Alzheimer's disease (AD) studies, psychologists have gained a clear picture of cognitive problems in people who will develop the degenerative brain disease. The meta-analysis reveals that people can show early warning signs across several cognitive domains years before they are officially diagnosed, confirming that Alzheimer's causes general deterioration and tends to follow a stable preclinical stage with a sharp drop in function. The findings appear in the July issue of Neuropsychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association. The analysis showed that no matter what kind of study, people at the preclinical stage showed marked preclinical deficits in global cognitive ability, episodic memory, perceptual speed, and executive functioning; along with somewhat smaller deficits in verbal ability, visuospatial skill, and attention. There was no preclinical impairment in primary memory.

...Click to read... - Yahoo! News: "Widowed seniors can enhance their psychological well-being by living within an hour's drive of their children, according to a study by resarchers at Rutgers University and the University of Michigan."
But living with their children can cause their social life to suffer, according to the researchers, who published their findings in the September issue of Research on Aging.

Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers have discovered that patients who have either coronary artery bypass graft surgery or coronary angioplasty are at an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

The research, which appears in the current issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (http://www.j-alz.com), pinpoints stress and trauma of the surgery as the major cause for the increased risk.

"The coronary bypass patients had a 70 percent increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease," said Wolozin, co-author of the study. "This increased incidence of neurocognitive degeneration associated with heart bypass surgery provides further incentive for more studies to better characterize the risks of cardiac surgery on the brain."

...Click to read...

...Click to read...The brain areas involved in daydreaming appear to be the same regions targeted by Alzheimer's disease, researchers are reporting today in an unusual study that offers new insights into the roots of the deadly illness.

The strong correlation between the two suggests there might be a link between the sort of thinking that people regularly do when not involved in purposeful mental activity and the degenerative disease that is characterized by forgetfulness and dementia, scientists said.

...Click to read...: "'Project Lifesaver'tracking system"
Participants wear a bracelet that contains a radio transmitter. Each bracelet sends out a unique signal once every second. Receivers that can track the signal are located in the Sheriff's Department. If a family member of someone wearing the bracelet notifies the Sheriff that the participant is missing, investigators can begin tracking the frequency of the missing person's bracelet

...Click to read complete article..."This is the first of two part series on the recognition, diagnosing and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia and accounts for at least half of all dementias. It causes about 23,000 deaths a year in the United States, making it the eighth leading cause of death in the elderly population.

People over the age of 65 are most frequently affected, at which point the condition is labeled “late onset.” Early onset Alzheimer’s disease can develop in people as young as their mid-30s and in middle age, however, this is rare. Alzheimer’s disease is recognized through a number of signs and symptoms.

These are primarily identified as the development of multiple cognitive deficits manifested by both memory impairment and at least one other symptom of cognitive decline, such as decision-making ability.

Although there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease there are several drug treatments that may improve or stabilize symptoms and several care strategies and activities that may minimize or prevent behavioral/emotional problems. Researchers continue to look for new treatments to alter the course of the disease and other strategies to improve the quality of life for people with dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by gradual onset and progressive decline in cognition with sparing of motor and sensory functions until later stages. The average course of Alzheimer’s is approximately 10 years, with a range of three to 20 years duration from diagnosis to death, but the rate of progression is variable.

Memory impairment is present in the earliest stages of the disease; patients have difficulty learning new information and retaining it for more than a few minutes. As the disease advances, the ability to learn is increasingly compromised, and access to older, more distant memories is lost.

Cognitive impairment may affect daily life in several ways."