The discovery of a molecule that might influence the development of Alzheimer%u2019s disease (AD) could open up new strategies for drugs to treat or even prevent it.

The molecule, called sorLA, reduces the risk of senile plaques forming in the brain, an international team of researchers suggested.

In Alzheimer%u2019s disease, a protein found in the membranes of neurons called amyloid precursor protein (APP) is broken down to form amyloid beta-peptide. The latter is the main component of the senile plaques that are typically found in the brains of people with Alzheimer%u2019s.

Work led by scientists at the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine (Berlin, Germany) has shown that sorLA helps to direct APP to a different, less harmful metabolic pathway.MORE

This combined analysis of the largest trial on VaD to date showed that donepezil-treated patients had significant benefits in cognition, global function and ability to perform IADL. Based on these findings and reported tolerability, donepezil should be considered as an important therapeutic element in the overall management of patients with VaD.MORE..PubMed

CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today: "the Medicare handbook has incorrect information about choices offered to low-income seniors. Correct information can be found at http://www.medicare.gov.
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Since at least 1996, when the surgeon general released a report saying that "no one is too old to enjoy the benefits of regular physical activity," there has been an increased public awareness that fitness and growing old are not mutually exclusive. Studies have shown that exercise can help maintain both physical and mental health among older people. (The latest research suggests that it reduces pain and even generates brain cells.) And more people - from doctors and insurers to nursing home administrators and residents - are paying attention.....





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Several experimental therapies seemed to slow the mental confusion or helped improve daily functioning in Alzheimer's patients, according to small studies released today.

The findings presented here Monday at the first Alzheimer's Association International Conference on the Prevention of Dementia suggest that drugs in the pipeline might provide a bigger benefit to Alzheimer's patients than currently available therapies. Those therapies treat the symptoms of memory loss but don't stop the relentless progression of the disease, says Steven DeKosky, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

Researchers at the meeting reported being able to identify changes in the brain that presage the development of Alzheimer's by about a decade. If so, neurologists may soon be able to head off the disease — before irreversible damage occurs, DeKosky says.

"The hope is that by treating people early, we will slow the progress of the disease so much that they will be able to live a normal life for much longer," says Alzheimer's researcher Gordon Wilcock of the University of Bristol in England.MORE...USATODAY.com

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"Exercising in middle age not only keeps the weight down and the heart healthy but can also cut the risk of suffering from Alzheimer's disease, particularly in high risk people, Swedish researchers said on Monday. Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden found that people in mid-life who exercised at least twice a week had about a 60 percent lower risk of suffering from dementia than more sedentary people.

"This is the first study to show this long-term relation between physical activity and dementia later in life," Dr Miia Kivipelto, of the Aging Research Center at the institute, said in an interview.

The biggest impact was in people who had a genetic susceptibility to dementia, according to the study published in The Lancet Neurology journal."MORE- Yahoo! News