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Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) and the University of California have found that complete or partial removal of an enzyme that regulates fatty acid levels improves cognitive deficits in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Their findings, which will be published in today's issue of Nature Neuroscience, identified specific fatty acids that may contribute to the disease as well as a novel therapeutic strategy.

People with more education and more mentally demanding occupations may have protection against the memory loss that precedes Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the October 21, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study involved 242 people with Alzheimer's disease, 72 people with mild cognitive impairment, and 144 people with no memory problems.

Amyloid precursor protein (APP), whose cleavage product, amyloid-b (Ab), builds up into fibrous plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients, jumps from one specialized membrane microdomain to another to be cleaved, report Sakurai et al. Although there is no definitive evidence that Ab plaques are the direct cause of Alzheimer's disease, there is much circumstantial evidence to support this.

In a disease like ALS - one that's always fatal and that has a long history of research-resistant biology - finding a proof of principle in animal models is significant. This week, Johns Hopkins researchers report that transplanting a new line of stem cell-like cells into rat models of the disease clearly shifts key signs of neurodegenerative disease in general and ALS in particular - slowing the animals' neuron loss and extending life.

Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (NASDAQ:NYMX) holds U.S. and global patent rights for the use of statin drugs for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD), including for patients at risk for AD because of vascular-related risk factors or disease. An important new study has found that ongoing statin drug use was associated with a 67% reduction in the risk of AD (Current Alzheimer Research 2008; 5: 416-421).

If you're tired of hearing that you should do more crossword puzzles in order to exercise your brain and reduce your risk for Alzheimer's disease, you'll be happy to know...