Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Could Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia be biologically connected?
A new study from the lab of UW-Madison professor of medicine Luigi Puglielli, MD, PhD, opens a door to potential treatments for diseases of age, such as Alzheimer’s disease, by defining the roles of two enzymes that are imperative to protein production.
There is a critical need to identify measures of cognitive functioning sensitive to early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathophysiology in Down syndrome to advance clinical trial research in this at-risk population. The objective of the study was to longitudinally track performance on cognitive measures in relation to neocortical and striatal amyloid beta (Aβ) in non-demented Down syndrome.
Adults with Down syndrome (DS) are predisposed to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and a characterization of glucose metabolism change throughout AD progression has yet to be performed in this population. Using FDG PET, regional glucose metabolism was evaluated across groups of cognitively stable DS (CS-DS), DS with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease (MCI-DS/AD), and healthy non-DS sibling controls.
A team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is part of a new multi-institution effort to better understand Alzheimer’s disease in adults with Down syndrome. Adults with Down syndrome are at high risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease beginning in their late 40s, because of their unique biology. The vast majority will eventually develop the …
In Alzheimer’s disease (AD), neurodegenerative processes are ongoing for years prior to the time that cortical atrophy can be reliably detected using conventional neuroimaging techniques. Recent advances in diffusion-weighted imaging have provided new techniques to study neural microstructure, which may provide additional information regarding neurodegeneration.
A gift from the Mancheski Foundation continues to provide integral support to doctoral student Matthew Zammit as he furthers his research on the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in individuals with Down syndrome. Zammit is beginning his fourth year as a doctoral student working in the laboratory of Bradley Christian, PhD, a Waisman investigator and professor …
Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a small molecule produced by the metaorganismal metabolism of dietary choline, has been implicated in human disease pathogenesis, including known risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), such as metabolic, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular disease.
Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome; DS) leads to an overproduction of amyloid precursor protein and an increased risk for early Alzheimer’s disease. A study of the natural history of AD-related neuropathology is ongoing to gain an understanding of the distribution and time course of b-amyloid and tau burden in the brains of adults with DS.
About once every year and a half, Erin Harvey takes time off of her job as a teacher’s aide and along with her mom, Nancy, makes a two and a half hour drive from her home in central Illinois to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman Center to “embark on an afternoon of adventure.” At the …
