Alzheimer’s

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., visited the Medical Campus this week to meet with physicians who treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and patients and caregivers who live with the debilitating disease every day. Blunt, pictured with physician-scientist Randall J. Bateman, chairs a subcommittee that oversees funding for medical research.

Depression and behavioral changes may occur before memory declines in people who will go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research at the School of Medicine led by senior author Catherine M. Roe, PhD.

A protein that stimulates the brain to awaken from sleep may be a target for preventing Alzheimer’s disease, a study by School of Medicine researchers suggests. David M. Holtzman, MD, head of the Department of Neurology, is the study’s senior author.

A long-term study of older adults led by Anne Fagan (right) has helped validate a new system for identifying and classifying older adults with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease. Many researchers think this stage of the disease, which can last a decade or more, is critical window for slowing or stopping Alzheimer’s treatments.

Sleep is disrupted in people who likely have early Alzheimer’s disease but do not yet have the memory loss or other cognitive problems characteristic of full-blown disease, researchers at the School of Medicine report. Shown is first author of the study, Yo-El Ju, MD,  an assistant professor of neurology.

Leading scientists have selected the first drugs to be evaluated in a worldwide clinical trial to determine whether they can prevent Alzheimer’s disease. The pioneering trial, expected to start by early 2013, initially will test three promising drugs, each designed to target Alzheimer’s in different ways.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have taken one of the first detailed looks into how Alzheimer’s disease disrupts coordination among several of the brain’s networks.

Sleep disruptions may be among the earliest indicators of the start of Alzheimer’s disease, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report this week in Science Translational Medicine. David M. Holtzman, MD, the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of the Department of Neurology, is the study’s author.

Scientists have assembled the most detailed chronology to date of the human brain’s long, slow slide into full-blown Alzheimer’s disease. Through an international research partnership known as the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network (DIAN), scientists at Washington University and elsewhere evaluated pre-symptomatic markers of Alzheimer’s disease in subjects from families genetically predisposed to develop the disorder.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has received nearly $4.2 million from the Alzheimer’s Association to accelerate the launch of the first clinical trials to prevent Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms become apparent. John C. Morris, MD, the Harvey A. and Dorismae Hacker Friedman Professor of Neurology, heads the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network at the School of Medicine.