New breakthrough developments have surfaced for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. According to Herald Tribune Health, Daniel Paris, a scientist with the Roskamp Institute stated researchers with Roskamp may have found an enzyme which controls symptoms related to Alzheimer’s Disease. If these researchers can further develop a drug which turns this enzyme off, they believe certain symptoms related to Alzheimer’s Disease may shut down too.

Barbara Peters Smith of Herald Tribune stated the number of those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease can skyrocket as the baby boom generation ages over the next 35 years. Developments to aid in the treatment of this neurodegenerative disorder had appeared to come to a halt until recent developments began again.

Recently, three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize for a discovery regarding brain function. These scientists included John O’Keefe and Mr. and Mrs. Edvard Moser, who both reportedly followed up on research performed by O’Keefe from 1971, according to Crystal Boulware of Guardian Liberty Voice. The follow-up research led to what the Mosers referred to as the “inner GPS” or how cells in the brain work with memory to help people navigate.

Read more at http://guardianlv.com/2014/10/alzheimers-disease-breakthrough-developments/#v2uvFbMgiELCv0l7.99

(CNN) — At least once a week a patient will come into Dr. Thomas Loepfe’s busy geriatric clinic in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, with a worry. She will tell him she’s been misplacing her glasses lately, or he’ll say he’s concerned about losing the car keys.

“Age is the biggest risk factor for forgetfulness, so this can be perfectly normal,” Loepfe said. As a geriatrician in the Mayo Clinic Health System, his patient population struggles with memory issues more than a pediatrician’s. “I tell them it doesn’t always mean there is something serious going on.”
But a new study in the American Academy of Neurology this week is giving Loepfe some pause.

The research suggests that people who feel they are forgetting more things may need to be concerned, even if bigger issues aren’t yet showing up on cognitive tests. Participants who reported memory problems at the beginning of the study were more likely to have dementia down the road than those who did not.

“Now we have more evidence that this is something we should watch from appointment to appointment,” Loepfe said.
There is no blood test or definitive way to diagnose Alzheimer’s, at least not when the patient is alive. An autopsy can provide a diagnosis, because the brain of someone with dementia has physical signs of the disease. But, of course, that test comes too late for any kind of prevention.

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(Reuters) – The discovery of cells in the brain that act as the body’s internal global positioning system, which won three scientists the Nobel Prize for medicine on Monday, opens an intriguing new window onto dementia.

Since these spatial cells are among the first to be hit in Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia — explaining why sufferers often lose their way — understanding how they are degraded should shed important light on the disease process.

That is the belief of British-American researcher John O’Keefe, winner of the 2014 prize alongside Norwegians May-Britt and Edvard Moser, who plans to take his research to the next level as director of a new brain institute in London.

“We’re now setting up to do much more high-tech studies where we hope to follow the progression of disease over time,” he told reporters after hearing he would share the 8 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million) prize.

“This will give us the first handle as to when and where the disease starts and how we can attack it at a the molecular and cellular level.”

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