health 71

Proteins are essential to the function of every cell. Measuring their properties in blood and other body fluids could unlock valuable information, as the molecules are a vital building block in the body. The body manufactures them in a variety of complex shapes that can transmit messages between cells, carry oxygen and perform other important functions. Sometimes, however, proteins don't form properly. Scientists believe that some types of these misshapen proteins, called amyloids, can clump together into masses in the brain. The sticky tangles block normal cell function, leading to brain cell degeneration and disease. But the processes of how amyloids form and clump together are not well understood. This is due in part to the fact that there's currently not a good way to study them. Researchers say current methods are expensive, time-consuming and difficult to interpret, and can only provide a broad picture of the overall level of amyloids in a patient's system. ...

The study, published in the journal  JAMA Psychiatry , is the first to show the multiplying effects of delirium and dementia in these patients. Episodes of delirium in people who are not known to have dementia , might also reveal dementia at its earliest stages, the research found. While both delirium and dementia are important factors in cognitive decline among the elderly, delirium is preventable and treatable through dedicated geriatric care. Further research is needed to understand exactly how delirium interacts with dementia, and how this could be blocked. "If delirium is causing brain injury in the short and long-term, then we must increase our efforts to diagnose, prevent and treat delirium. Ultimately, targeting delirium could be a chance to delay or reduce dementia" said Dr. Daniel Davis (MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL), who led the research while at the University of Cambridge. Scientists looked at three European populations -- in Finland...

A study describing the findings will be published online Jan. 18 in  Nature . "We've learned astrocytes aren't always the good guys," said the study's senior author , Ben Barres, MD, PhD, professor of neurobiology, of developmental biology and of neurology and neurological sciences. "An aberrant version of them turns up in suspicious abundance in all the wrong places in brain-tissue samples from patients with brain injuries and major neurological disorders from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to multiple sclerosis. The implications for treating these diseases are profound." Barres, who has spent three decades focusing on brain cells that aren't nerve cells, called the findings "the most important discovery my lab has ever made." Stanford postdoctoral scholar Shane Liddelow, PhD, is the study's lead author. Up to now, the pharmaceutical industry has mostly targeted nerve cells, also known as neurons, Barres said. But a broad...