Credit: Original article published here.A new study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found an association between common infections and poor cognitive performance. The research was published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia. Senior author and professor at the Bloomberg School’s Department of Mental Health, Adam Spira, PhD, stated: “The idea that common infections could contribute to cognitive decline and perhaps Alzheimer’s disease risk was once on the fringe and remains controversial, but due to findings like the ones from this study, it’s starting to get more mainstream attention.” Dr. Spira and his research team analyzed the antibody levels of five common pathogens which included: herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus, varicella zoster virus, and Toxoplasma gondii. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and delayed verbal recall performance were evaluated in 575 adults aged 41 to 97 years who donated blood for testing as part of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study. Researchers employed multivariable-adjusted zero-inflated Poisson regression models to analyze the data. The results showed that having positive antibody tests for CMV (P =0.011) and herpes simplex virus (P =0.018) were individually linked to poorer performance on the MMSE. Additionally, the study found that having a greater

Credit: Original article published here.Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have recently made a significant discovery that could pave the way for a simple and non-invasive screening procedure for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study, which was published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, shows that a type of sugar molecule known as bisecting N-acetylglucosamine glycan epitope is linked to tau protein, which is a key factor in the progression of advanced dementia and AD. The research team has previously established a correlation between the levels of glycan and tau protein in individuals with AD. However, these analyses were done on cerebrospinal fluid which is difficult to obtain and can be considered invasive. “The role of glycans, structures made up of sugar molecules, is a relatively unexplored field in dementia research,” Robin Zhou, medical student at Karolinska Institutet and lead author of the study, stated.  Glycans are sugar molecules located on the surface of proteins that dictate the function and placement of these proteins in the body. By measuring blood glycan levels, the researchers found that individuals with matching levels of glycans and tau were over twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s-type dementia. The team of researchers

Credit: Original article published here.A recent study conducted by researchers at Mass General Brigham found that women are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD) than men, with two-thirds of the AD population being female. The study design was cross-sectional in nature and focused on the relationship between the risk of AD, sex, age of onset of menopause, and hormone therapy (HT). The results, published in JAMA Neurology, suggested that early age at menopause may be a risk factor for AD as well as dementia. Rachel Buckley, PhD, from the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and senior author of the study commented, “HT is the most reliable way to ameliorate severe menopause symptoms, but over the last few decades, there has been a lack of clarity on how HT affects the brain.” Dr. Buckley and coresearchers analyzed participants enrolled in the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer Prevention who underwent 18F-MK-6240 and 11C-Pittsburgh compound B positron emission tomography (PET) scans. Then the researchers evaluated the relationship between menopause and HT use and regional tau PET in seven regions of the brain that show sex differences across temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes. The primary exposures included premature menopause, early menopause,