Current Alzheimer research
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During the next decades a rapid increase is expected in the number of patients with dementia suffering from pain who often take less medication compared to normal elderly, due to several diagnostic barriers. Comorbid mood disorders result in great difficulties in pain assessment and further treatment. ⋯ It seems that depression and anxiety are associated with chronic musculoskeletal pain intensity in dementia, thus need to be taken into consideration by health professionals for patient's management.
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is a great public health problem worldwide. The cause and mechanism of AD are not well understood. Inhalational anesthetics have been suggested to induce neurotoxicity, leading to memory deficits and the progression of AD. ⋯ Sevoflurane exposure did not attenuate the climbing ability or survival of control and AD-transgenic flies. The inhalational anesthetic sevoflurane might not have exerted neurotoxic effects on control and AD-transgenic flies; in fact, sevoflurane might confer selective neuroprotection on the retinal function of AD-transgenic flies. These results suggest the need for future studies to determine the potential effects of anesthetics on AD-associated neuroprotection or neurotoxicity.
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The current study evaluated whether the functional connectivity pattern of the thalamo-cortical network in patients with Alzheimer' s disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) would show disease severityrelated alterations. ⋯ Our results revealed disease severity-related alterations of the thalamo-default mode network and thalamocortical connectivity in AD and MCI patients. These results support the hypothesis of network disconnection in AD.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma and the risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia: a population based CAIDE study.
Previous research indicates that persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma may have more cognitive impairment compared to persons without these diseases. However, there are no previous studies regarding long-term effects of these diseases on the risk of clinically diagnosed mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. We examined the association between midlife and late-life self-reported COPD and asthma and the lifelong risk of cognitive impairment (MCI/dementia) in a population-based study with a follow-up of over 25 years. ⋯ In this population-based study, with more than 25 years of follow-up, midlife COPD and asthma were associated with an almost two-fold risk of MCI and dementia later in life. Pulmonary diseases diagnosed later in life seemed to have an inverse relationship with cognitive impairment probably reflecting survival bias.
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The remarkable potentiality of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) after transplantation to models of neurological disease and injury has been described. We have previously published data confirming the influence of BM-MSCs on β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition in an Alzheimer's disease (AD) mouse model. However, therapeutic approaches in neurological diseases such as AD, including those for BM-MSCs, are increasingly centered on the potential for prophylactic therapy in pro-dromal states where the underlying cause of the disease is apparent but functional deficits are not. ⋯ Expression of dynamin 1 and Synapsin 1, key pre-synaptic proteins associated with synaptic transmission, which are typically decreased in brains of AD patients, were considerably enhanced in the brains of AD mice treated with BM-MSCs and this response was sustained beyond 2 months. These data demonstrate that BM-MSCs produce an acute reduction in Aβ deposits and facilitate changes in key proteins required for synaptic transmission. These findings suggest that BM-MSC transplantation warrants further investigation as a potential therapy for early intervention in pro-dromal AD.