Day by day, science is finding help for the aged; what will it be when come my time?
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Posted: 25 January 2012
PARIS: French scientists said on Tuesday that lack of a key brain protein was linked to Alzheimer's, a finding that threw up a tempting target for drugs to fight the disease.
"What we've found is a weapon for controlling and modifying tau," said Etienne-Emile Baulieu of France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), referring to a culprit involved in Alzheimer's.
Building on earlier work, researchers delved into a Paris "brain bank," of organs donated for medical science, to compare levels of a protein called FKBP52 among brains of people who had died of dementia and those who had died of other causes.
Tiny slivers of brain were extracted and their chemicals analysed.
In the frontal cortex, "levels of FKBP52 were 75 percent lower among people who had died of Alzheimer's and other tau diseases, a dramatic fall," Baulieu told a press conference.
Baulieu said FKBP52 was the best target that had surfaced so far in the fight against Alzheimer's, a disease that is as cruel as it is baffling.
A rogue protein that later became named tau was first spotted in 1912 by Alois Alzheimer, the German neuropathologist who gave his name to this relentless degenerative disease of the brain.
When normal tau undergoes a process called hyperphosphorylation, it starts to assemble in microscopic tangles inside brain cells, killing them.
But another telltale sign of Alzheimer's is the accumulation of so-called amyloid plaques outside neurons, and their connection with tau, if any, remains unclear.
Discovered in 1992, FKBP52 is a protein that is found abundantly in the brain, where it has a workhorse role in folding and unfolding other proteins.
But it has also been revealed to bind to tau, which gives rise to the theory that lack of the protein helps tau to clump together.
Baulieu sounded a word of caution, saying the molecular cascade of events that cause tau tangles was still not fully clear.
But levels of FKBP52 could be used as a marker of susceptibility to Alzheimer's, and boosting them could provide a means of stalling progression of the disease.
"I think that in three or four years, we will have results that are sufficiently broad and robust to be able to use candidate drugs that we will have found, or that pharmaceutical companies can use and modify," he said.
"It may go a lot faster than people say."
In 2010, Alzheimer's Disease International, the umbrella body of national associations for the disease, estimated that the number of Alzheimer's sufferers will mushroom from 35.6 million people worldwide to 65.7 million by 2030 and 115.4 million by 2050.
The research appears in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
- AFP/al
Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Alzheimer's: French scientists focus on key target
And yes, there is still hope, even for the elderly...
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Posted: 29 December 2011
WASHINGTON: Elderly people with higher levels of certain vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids in their blood score better on mental acuity tests than those who eat junk food, a study released on Wednesday showed.
The study published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, also showed that eating better could help reduce the brain shrinkage commonly associated with Alzheimer's disease.
"This approach clearly shows the biological and neurological activity that's associated with actual nutrient levels, both good and bad," said Maret Traber, a principal investigator at the Linus Pauling Institute and study co-author.
Researchers at the institute at Oregon State University conducted the study, one of the first of its kind, along with scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.
The study, carried out among 104 people at an average age of 87, specifically measured a wide range of blood nutrient levels instead of basing results on food questionnaires, which are less precise and less reliable.
"The vitamins and nutrients you get from eating a wide range of fruits, vegetables and fish can be measured in blood biomarkers," Traber said.
"I'm a firm believer these nutrients have strong potential to protect your brain and make it work better."
Researchers noted the positive effects of high levels of vitamins B, C, D and E, as well as the healthy oils most commonly found in fish, on mental quickness and brain size.
Those with a higher intake of trans-fats - commonly found in fried foods, fast foods and other less healthy diet options - did not perform as well on cognitive tests.
Researchers found that while age and education affected performance on the cognitive tests, nutrient status accounted for 17 percent of the variation in scores, and 37 percent of the differences in brain volume.
Of those who took part in the study, seven percent showed a vitamin B12 deficiency, and 25 percent did not have enough vitamin D in their systems.
Scientists tested 30 different nutrient biomarkers. In addition, 42 participants had MRI scans to measure their brain volume.
"These findings are based on average people eating average American diets," Traber said.
"If anyone right now is considering a New Year's resolution to improve their diet, this would certainly give them another reason to eat more fruits and vegetables."
Study co-author Gene Bowman of the Oregon Health and Science University added while results needed to be confirmed, "it is very exciting to think that people could potentially stop their brains from shrinking and keep them sharp by adjusting their diet."
- AFP/de
Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Elderly who eat better stay mentally sharp, says study
At first impression, I would say "I'm amused" with the title, but just the same, read on...
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Posted: 22 December 2011
LONDON: More than 250 British women are taking court action after more than half experienced ruptures in breast implants made by a French company at the centre of a cancer scare, a lawyer said on Wednesday.
The women are among up to 50,000 in Britain who have had implants that were manufactured by the now-bankrupt Poly Implant Prothese (PIP).
Health officials in France have said the government plans to recommend to 30,000 French women with PIP implants that they have them removed, after eight cases of cancer, mainly breast cancer, were reported.
A lawyer representing more than 250 women in Britain said legal proceedings would start next year, with the complainants making claims against the clinics which carried out the operations to insert the implants.
"Over half of these women have suffered ruptured implants and we are also representing other women who are worried by the reports of problems and worried that their implants could rupture eventually," lawyer Esyllt Hughes told AFP.
"We have issued some court proceedings and we expect them to begin in Cardiff next year."
Documents obtained by AFP on Wednesday showed that tens of thousands of women in more than 65 countries, mainly in South America and western Europe, received implants produced by PIP, which ceased trading last year.
European authorities sought on Wednesday to head off panic over the scare, saying there was no proof of a link to cancer.
France's health ministry, however, has said there was no "urgent health risk" from the implants and no "causal link" with cancer has yet been proved.
An expert report will be released in France on Friday saying whether the implants should be removed.
PIP was shut down and its products banned last year after it was revealed to have been using non-authorised silicone gel that caused abnormally high rupture rates of its implants.
Facing financial difficulties, the company, once the world's third-largest producer of silicone implants, replaced the medical-grade silicone in its implants with industrial-strength material.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in Britain urged patients not to panic, although it said they may want to consult their surgeons.
"We did extensive genotoxic and chemical tests and we could find no evidence of any safety aspect associated with this filler," MHRA medical director Suzanne Ludgate told BBC radio.
"We have been working very closely with the professional bodies to look at the incidence of cancer associated with these breast implants and we've worked with the cancer registry and we can find no evidence for any association."
In Germany, authorities said it was not known how many German women had received the implants and no recall was planned for the moment.
"We are waiting for the decision from French authorities, with whom we are in close contact," a health ministry spokesman told AFP.
German authorities "had already in April warned women and doctors who used these products," he said.
In Spain the health ministry said it was not recommending the implants be removed but was urging women who had received the implants to have them checked for ruptures.
It also could not say how many Spanish women had received the implants.
The documents seen by AFP also showed eastern European countries including Bulgaria, Russia and Poland accounted for 10 percent of PIP's exports in 2009.
Prosecutors in Marseille, near the firm's home base of Seyne-sur-Mer, have received more than 2,000 complaints from French women who received the implants and have opened a criminal investigation into the firm.
Yves Haddad, a lawyer for 72-year-old PIP founder Jean-Claude Mas, told AFP his client was prepared to face prosecution and denied the implants could be linked with health problems.
"For the moment there is no evidence that the product can cause illness," the lawyer said.
- AFP/de
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Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
British women to sue over French breast implants
How strictly should this strict diet be followed, so I save my brain when I am old?
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Posted: 20 December 2011
WASHINGTON: Eating less may keep the mind young, according to Italian scientists who reported on Monday they have discovered the molecular process by which a strict diet may save the brain from the ravages of age.
The research, published in the US journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is based on a study of mice that were fed a diet of about 70 percent of the food they normally consumed.
Scientists found that the calorie-restricted diet triggered a protein molecule, CREB1, that activates a host of genes linked to longevity and good brain function.
"Our hope is to find a way to activate CREB1, for example through new drugs, so to keep the brain young without the need of a strict diet," said lead author Giovambattista Pani, researcher at the Institute of General Pathology, Faculty of Medicine at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Rome.
Researchers have previously discovered that mice on diets show better cognitive abilities and memory, less aggression, and tend to avoid or delay Alzheimer's disease. But they have not known exactly why.
"CREB1 is known to regulate important brain functions as memory, learning and anxiety control, and its activity is reduced or physiologically compromised by ageing," said the study.
Mice that were genetically altered to lack CREB1 showed none of the same memory benefits if they were on a low-calorie diet as mice that had the molecule, and showed the same brain disabilities as mice that were overfed.
"Thus, our findings identify for the first time an important mediator of the effects of diet on the brain," Pani said.
"This discovery has important implications to develop future therapies to keep our brain young and prevent brain degeneration and the ageing process."
According to Marc Gordon, chief of neurology at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, the findings could shed new light on why some people who are obese in middle age encounter cognitive problems later in life.
"Mid-life obesity has been associated with late-life dementia. However, the physiological basis for this association remains unclear," said Gordon, who was not part of the study.
"These investigators have studied the effects of limiting caloric intake in mice, and have identified a biochemical pathway that may mediate at least some of the brain's responses to dietary restriction."
- AFP/de
Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Strict diet could save brain from ageing
