Neuro-degenerative Diseases

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is emerging as a significant public health challenge in Africa, with predictions indicating a tripling in incidence by 2050. The diagnosis of AD on the African continent is notably difficult, leading to late detection that severely limits treatment options and significantly impacts the quality of life for patients and their families. SUMMARY: This review focuses on the potential of high-sensitivity specific blood biomarkers as promising tools for improving AD diagnosis and management globally, particularly in Africa...

Introduction Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a four-repeat tauopathy characterized by multiple clinicopathologic subtypes. Advanced neuroimaging techniques have shown an early ability to distinguish PSP subtypes non-invasively for improved diagnosis. This study utilized tau-PET imaging and MRI techniques at 7 Tesla (7T) to determine the neuroimaging profile of a participant with comorbid PSP and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Method [18F]-flortaucipir PET imaging was performed on one participant with PSP-ALS, one participant with typical PSP (Richardson's syndrome; PSP-RS), and 15 healthy control volunteers...

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the work was to establish a prediction model of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) progression based on intestinal flora by machine learning method. METHOD: A total of 1013 patients were recruited, in which 87 patients with MCI finished a two-year follow-up. To establish a prediction model, 61 patients were randomly divided into a training set and 26 patients were divided into a testing set. A total of 121 features including demographic characteristics, hematological indicators, and intestinal flora abundance were analyzed...

In this letter we discuss the use of neuroimaging techniques for patients to be included in new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.

INTRODUCTION: Epidemiological data indicate that neurodegenerative diseases show a high prevalence with a progressive increasing trend, especially in aging populations, as is the case in rural areas. The objective of this study was to assess the quantitative impact of neurodegenerative diseases in rural areas of the Spanish-Portuguese border region and to describe the epidemiological profile of the most prevalent disorders in one of the most depopulated and aged regions of Europe. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was designed to estimate the prevalence of subjects diagnosed with the most common neurodegenerative disorders: dementia (Alzheimer's disease & other dementias), Parkinson's disease & Parkinsonism and Multiple sclerosis in the Spanish-Portuguese cross-border border region in 2020...

BACKGROUND: Technological evolution leads to the constant enhancement of monitoring systems, recording symptoms of diverse disorders. SUMMARY: For Parkinson's disease, wearable devices empowered with machine learning analysis are the main modules for objective measurements. Software and hardware improvements have led to the development of reliable systems that can detect symptoms accurately and be implicated in follow-up and treatment decisions. KEY MESSAGES: Among many different devices developed so far, the most promising ones are those that can record symptoms from all extremities and the trunk, in the home environment during the activities of daily living, assess gait impairment accurately, and be suitable for long-term follow-up of the patients...

BACKGROUND: Learning is a long-term memory process, influenced by working memory control processes, including recognition of semantic properties of items by which subjects generate a semantic structure of engrams. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study is to investigate the verbal learning strategies of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). METHOD: Thirty individuals with idiopathic PD and healthy control (HC) subjects were tested with a multi-trial word list learning, under two conditions: without cue and then with an explicit cue suggesting the categories in the list, respectively...

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No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: The ecological validity of performance-based cognitive screeners needs to be tested in order for them to be fully recommended for use within clinical practice and research. OBJECTIVES: To examine, within an Italian cohort of non-demented PD patients, the ecological validity of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), by assessing its association with 1) functional independence (FI), 2) quality of life (QoL) and 3) behavioural-psychological (BP) outcomes...

Introduction Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker quantification provides physicians with a reliable diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the relationship between their concentration and disease course has not been clearly elucidated. This work aims to investigate the clinical and prognostic significance of Aβ40 CSF levels. Methods A retrospective cohort of 76 patients diagnosed with AD using decreased Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio were subclassified into hyposecretors (Aβ40<7755 pg/ml), normosecretors (Aβ40 7755-16715 pg/ml), and hypersecretors (Aβ40>16715pg/ml)...

BACKGROUND: Delirium disorder is a frequent neurological complication of SARS-CoV-2 infection and associated with an increased disease severity and mortality. Cognitive impairment is a major risk factor for developing delirium disorder during Covid-19, which, in turn, increases the risk of subsequent neurological complications and cognitive decline. SUMMARY: The bidirectional connection between delirium disorder and dementia likely resides at multiple levels, and its pathophysiological mechanisms during Covid-19 include endothelial damage, blood-brain barrier dysfunction and local inflammation, with activation of microglia and astrocytes...

INTRODUCTION: Spastic paraplegia type 54 (SPG54) is an autosomal recessive disorder, caused by bi-allelic mutations in the DDHD2 gene. Worldwide, over 24 SPG54 families and 24 pathogenic variants have been reported. Our study aimed to describe the clinical and molecular findings of a pediatric patient from a consanguineous Iranian family with significant motor development delay, walking problems, paraplegia and optic atrophy. METHODS: The patient was a 7-year-old boy with severe neurodevelopmental and psychomotor problems...

BACKGROUND: Although Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, the effective treatment of AD is not available currently. Multiple trials of drugs, which were developed based on the amyloid hypothesis of AD, have not been highly successful to improve cognitive and other symptoms in AD patients, suggesting that it is necessary to explore additional and alternative approaches for the disease-modifying treatment of AD. The diverse lines of evidence have revealed that lithium reduces amyloid and tau pathology, attenuates neuronal loss, enhances synaptic plasticity, and improves cognitive function...

INTRODUCTION: To document the characteristics of ALS patients in Queensland, to examine factors influencing age of onset and survival, and to study those with early onset (<45 years) disease and those with long (> 5 years) survival. METHODS: We studied subjects seen at the ALS Clinic at the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital. We recorded sex, age of onset, region of onset, length of survival, presence of family history, type of disease and evidence of cognitive involvement...

INTRODUCTION: Several studies indicate the role of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as an important tool in regenerative medicine associated with injuries that affect the central nervous system (CNS). The MSCs have the capacity to differentiate into cells of the embryonal tissue, such as the mesoderm. So, these cells can be found in a variety of tissues. Also, the MSCs can release immunomodulatory and neurotrophic factors performance as inflammation mediators operating in injured tissue the regeneration...

INTRODUCTION: Sleep insufficiency or decreased quality have been associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) already in its preclinical stages. Whether such traits are also present in rodent models of the disease has been poorly addressed, somewhat disabling the preclinical exploration of sleep-based therapeutic interventions for AD. METHODS: We investigated age-dependent sleep-wake phenotype of a widely used mouse model of AD, the Tg2576 line. We implanted electroencephalography/ electromyography headpieces into 6 months old (plaque-free, n=10) and 11 months old (moderate plaque-burdened, n=10) Tg2576 and age-matched wild-type (WT, 6 month old n =10, 11 month old n =10) mice and recorded vigilance states for 24 hours...

INTRODUCTION: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a form of dementia which affects majority of the people. It is characterized by memory loss and other cognitive functions disabilities and is one of the most challenging neurodegenerative disorders to treat, because of its progressive nature. The disease affects millions of people all around the world, and the number of those affected is expanding every day. In the previous study, the 4-phthalimidobenzenesulfonamide derivatives were synthesized as AChE and BChE inhibitors and here we are aiming to further reporting in-silico studies of these compounds for efficient drug discovery process and to find out the potential lead compounds...

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed at testing whether CSF levels of amyloid β42 (Aβ42), Aβ40, total tau and phosphorylated tau (P-tau181) individually contribute to the identification of atypical phenotypes among a retrospective cohort of probable AD patients diagnosed by means of the ratio between Aβ42 and Aβ40 (Aβ42/40). METHODS: The retrospective study cohort comprised 50 probable AD patients diagnosed by means of the ratio between Aβ42 and Aβ40 (Aβ42/40) and for whom total tau and P-tau181 values were also available...

BACKGROUND: Recent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have reported abnormal functional connectivity (FC) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC)-striatum circuit in patients with premanifest Huntington's disease (HD). However, there is a lack of evidence showing persistence of abnormal frontostriatal FC and its relation to cognitive flexibility performance in patients with clinically manifest HD. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the resting state FC integrity of the frontostriatal circuit and its relation to cognitive flexibility in HD patients and Healthy Controls (HC)...