Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD
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The aging eye offers unique opportunities to study and understand the aging brain, in particular related to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia. However, little is known about relationships between eye diseases and dementia-related neurodegeneration. ⋯ Increased risk of deep cerebral microinfarcts was found in participants diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy. Eye diseases such as glaucoma may increase susceptibility to neurofibrillary tangles in the occipital cortex.
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Neurocognitive disorders create important challenges for patients, their families, and clinicians who provide their health care. Early/timely detection in daily clinical practice allows for diagnosis and adequate treatment, psychosocial support, education, and engagement in shared decision-making related to health care, life planning, involvement in research, and financial matters. However, neurocognitive disorders, when present, are not detected or not diagnosed and not documented, in more than half of patients seen by primary care physicians. The aim of this paper is to highlight the strategies and the perspectives to improve the early/timely detection of neurocognitive disorders in daily clinical practice.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
An Indoor Therapeutic Garden for Behavioral Symptoms in Alzheimer's Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) affect 60-90% of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). ⋯ The indoor TG seems safe and may reduce BPSD, medication intake, and cortisol levels in AD.
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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-related progressive form of dementia that features neuronal loss, intracellular tau, and extracellular amyloid-β (Aβ) protein deposition. Neurodegeneration is accompanied by neuroinflammation mainly involving microglia, the resident innate immune cell population of the brain. During AD progression, microglia shift their phenotype, and it has been suggested that they express matricellular proteins such as secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) and Hevin protein, which facilitate the migration of other immune cells, such as blood-derived dendritic cells. ⋯ SPARC is highly expressed in AD brain and collocates to Aβ protein deposits, thus contributing actively to cerebral inflammation and subsequent tissue repair, and Hevin may be downregulated in the diseased state. However, further research is needed to reveal the exact roles of SPARC and Hevin proteins and associated signaling pathways in AD-related neuroinflammation. Nevertheless, normalizing SPARC/Hevin protein expression such as interdicting heightened SPARC protein expression may confer a novel therapeutic opportunity for modulating AD progression.
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Neurofilament light chain (NFL) as a potential biomarker of neurodegenerative diseases has been studied in a number of studies. Thus, a comprehensive meta-analysis is warranted to assess NFL performance in neurodegenerative diseases. ⋯ In our study, in addition to PD, NFL was suggested to be a global diagnostic biomarker for neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, it could be used in differential diagnosis of PD and PD-related disorders. However, it was worth noting that NFL was not appropriate for diagnosis or differential diagnosis without clinical symptoms and other auxiliary examinations.