Neurobiology of aging
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Methylene blue (MB), the first synthetic drug, has a 120-year-long history of diverse applications, both in medical treatments and as a staining reagent. In recent years there was a surge of interest in MB as an antimalarial agent and as a potential treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), possibly through its inhibition of the aggregation of tau protein. Here we review the history and medical applications of MB, with emphasis on recent developments.
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Neurobiology of aging · Dec 2011
ReviewFluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography: emerging roles in the evaluation of putative Alzheimer's disease-modifying treatments.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with characteristic and progressive reductions in flourodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) measurements of the regional cerebral metabolic rate for glucose. These reductions begin years before the onset of symptoms, are correlated with clinical severity, and may help predict an affected patient's clinical course and neuropathological diagnosis. ⋯ This article considers FDG PET's role in the detection and tracking of AD, its emerging roles in the evaluation of disease-slowing treatments, some of the issues involved in the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of FDG PET data, and the evidence needed to help qualify FDG PET and other biomarkers for use in the accelerated approval of AD-slowing treatments. It recommends scientific strategies and public policies to further establish the role of FDG PET and other AD biomarkers in therapeutic trials and find demonstrably effective disease-modifying and presymptomatic AD treatments as quickly as possible.