PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Variations in eye structure and function may reveal features of early-stage Alzheimer's disease

Visual disturbances may be seen in Alzheimer's disease prior to diagnosis

2014-03-18
(Press-News.org) LOS ANGELES (March 18, 2014) – Investigators at the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute have discovered eye abnormalities that may help reveal features of early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Using a novel laboratory rat model of Alzheimer's disease and high-resolution imaging techniques, researchers correlated variations of the eye structure, to identify initial indicators of the disease.

Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia, which is characterized by loss of memory and a progressive decline in cognitive function. To date, more than 26 million people are estimated to suffer from the disease and the number is expected to quadruple by 2050. Despite the disease being described over a century ago, treatment and understanding of the disease remain rather limited.

"Detecting changes in the brain that indicate Alzheimer's disease can be an extremely challenging task," said Shaomei Wang, MD, PhD, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the Regenerative Medicine Institute and Department of Biomedical Sciences. "By using the eye as a window to brain activity and function, we may be able to diagnose patients sooner and give them more time to prepare for the future. Options may include earlier enrollment in clinical trials, developing support networks and dealing with any financial and legal matters."

Using both animal models and postmortem human retinas from donors with Alzheimer's disease, researchers found changes in the retinal pigment epithelial layer, which harbors the supportive cells located in the back of the eye, and in the thickness of the choroidal layer that has blood vessels providing nutrients to the retina. Changes in these two regions were detected using sophisticated, state-of-the-art imaging and immunological techniques.

With high-resolution, microscopic imaging and visual acuity measurements, investigators were able to monitor tissue degeneration in the cell layer and vascular layer at the back of the eye, as well as decline in visual function, that were strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease.

"Greater magnitude in these eye abnormalities may mean a greater chance of a patient having Alzheimer's disease," said Alexander Ljubimov, PhD, director of the Eye Program within the Regenerative Medicine Institute and co-author of the study. "We found that a rat model showed similar signs to the human ailment in the eye. If true in a larger number of humans, these findings may be used to study Alzheimer's disease mechanisms and test potential drugs."

Though additional research is needed to investigate the mechanisms of these ocular changes in relation to changes in the brain, investigators hope to ultimately aid early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease by studying the most approachable part of the central nervous system: the eye. Cedars-Sinai has been at the cutting edge of studies on the eye and Alzheimer's disease with a previous report showing amyloid plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, also build up in the eye using a similar animal model of the disease.

"It is fascinating that the eye may provide such a window to the brain and eventually predict diseases such as Alzheimer's, although more human studies are now needed to confirm this animal work," said Clive Svendsen, PhD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute and a co-author on the study. Other members of the Regenerative Medicine Institute Eye Program, include Yu Chun Tsai, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow; and Bin Lu, MD, PhD, and Sergey Girman, PhD, both project scientists.

INFORMATION: Additional investigators include Fred N. Ross-Cisneros and Alfredo A. Sadun, both from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, and Robert M. Cohen from Emory University.

Citation: Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. 2014 January: Ocular Changes in TgF344-AD Rat Model of Alzheimer's disease.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Children exposed to methamphetamine before birth have increased cognitive problems

2014-03-18
LOS ANGELES – (March 18, 2014) – In the only long-term, National Institutes of Health-funded study of prenatal methamphetamine exposure and child outcome, researchers found youngsters exposed to the potent illegal drug before birth had increased cognitive problems at age 7.5 years, highlighting the need for early intervention to improve academic outcomes and reduce the potential for negative behaviors, according to the study published online by The Journal of Pediatrics. The researchers studied 151 children exposed to methamphetamine before birth and 147 who were not ...

Crop intensification can be a long-term solution to perennial food shortages in Africa

Crop intensification can be a long-term solution to perennial food shortages in Africa
2014-03-18
Farmers in Africa can increase their food production if they avoid over dependence on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and practice agricultural intensification - growing more food on the same amount of land – using natural and resource-conserving approaches such as agroforestry. According to scientists at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), crop production in Africa is seriously hampered by the degradation of soil fertility, water and biodiversity resources. Currently, yields for important cereals such as maize have stagnated at 1 tone per hectare. Climate change ...

Archaeologists discover the earliest complete example of a human with cancer

2014-03-18
Archaeologists have found the oldest complete example in the world of a human with metastatic cancer in a 3,000 year-old skeleton. The findings are reported in the academic journal PLOS ONE today (17 March). The skeleton of the young adult male was found by a Durham University PhD student in a tomb in modern Sudan in 2013 and dates back to 1200BC. Analysis has revealed evidence of metastatic carcinoma, cancer which has spread to other parts of the body from where it started, from a malignant soft-tissue tumour spread across large areas of the body, making it ...

New therapeutic target identified for acute lung injury

New therapeutic target identified for acute lung injury
2014-03-18
Augusta, Ga. – A bacterial infection can throw off the equilibrium between two key proteins in the lungs and put patients at risk for a highly lethal acute lung injury, researchers report. Bacteria can alter a single amino acid in the protein RhoA, pushing its activity level well above that of Rac1 and prompting blood vessels to leak and flood thousands of tiny air sacs in the lungs, said Dr. Stephen Black, cell and molecular physiologist at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University. The study in The Journal of Biological Chemistry also proposes ...

Researchers identify risk factors for little-known lung infection

2014-03-18
Severe and sometimes fatal lung disease caused by a group of bacteria in the same family as those that cause tuberculosis is much more common than previously thought, with Caucasians 55 and older at greatest risk, report researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. The study is published online March 14 in PLOS ONE. Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) include more than 150 types of bacteria, found in water and soil, that can infect the lungs when inhaled. Unlike tuberculosis, NTM is not contagious and cannot spread from person to person. The ...

Computer analyzes massive clinical databases to properly categorize asthma patients

2014-03-18
PITTSBURGH—So many variables can contribute to shortness of breath that no person can keep them all straight. But a computer program, capable of tracking more than 100 clinical variables for almost 400 people, has shown it can identify various subtypes of asthma, which perhaps could lead to targeted, more effective treatments. Wei Wu, a Carnegie Mellon University computational biologist who led the analysis of patient data from the federally funded Severe Asthma Research Program, said many of the patient clusters identified by the computational methods are consistent ...

Cosmic inflation finding first predicted by JHU cosmologist

2014-03-18
A team of observational cosmologists may have found evidence that cosmic inflation occurred a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, a point predicted 18 years ago by Johns Hopkins University cosmologist and theoretical physicist Marc Kamionkowski. At a news conference earlier today at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass, researchers from the BICEP2 collaboration, a partnership between Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology, announced the first direct evidence for this sudden and vast expansion of the newborn universe. ...

UCLA geographers create 'easy button' to calculate river flows from space

2014-03-18
The frustrated attempts of a UCLA graduate student to quantify the amount of water draining from Greenland's melting ice sheet led him to devise a new way to measure river flows from outer space, he and his professor report in a new study. The new approach relies exclusively on the measurements of a river's width over time, which can be obtained from freely available satellite imagery. Currently, hydrologists calculate a river's discharge — the volume of water running through it at any given time — by taking a series of measurements on the ground, including not ...

Workplace flexibility still a myth for most

2014-03-18
CHESTNUT HILL, MA (March 17th): Workplace flexibility – it's a phrase that might be appealing to job seekers or make a company look good, but a new study by the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College shows flexible work options are out of reach for most employees and that when they are offered, arrangements are limited in size and scope. "While large percentages of employers report that they have at least some workplace flexibility, the number of options is usually limited and they are typically not available to the entire workforce," says Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, ...

Drug trafficking corrupts Kyrgyzstan's politics and underworld

Drug trafficking corrupts Kyrgyzstans politics and underworld
2014-03-18
PRINCETON, N.J.—Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked and mountainous country in Central Asia, serves a powerful role in the Eurasian drug trade by playing the "mule" that carts heroin and other opiates between Afghanistan and Russia. Many researchers theorize that this lucrative industry has taken root in Kyrgyzstan – a country with few natural resources and industries – with significant support and leeway from its government, making it a "narco-state." In the first examination of its kind, a researcher at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School writes in the International ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

Targeting FGFR2 may prevent or delay some KRAS-mutated pancreatic cancers

[Press-News.org] Variations in eye structure and function may reveal features of early-stage Alzheimer's disease
Visual disturbances may be seen in Alzheimer's disease prior to diagnosis