Newest studies

Eukaryotic stress granules are cleared by autophagy and Cdc48/VCP function

52/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Lewy body dementia Cell

Key finding: Because mutations in VCP predispose humans to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, inclusion body myopathy, and multisystem proteinopathy, this work suggests that autophagic clearance of stress granule related and pathogenic RNP granules that arise in degenerative diseases may be important in reducing their pathology.

• Other Dementias
• Genetics

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Tau pathology and neurodegeneration

59/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Lewy body dementia The Lancet. Neurology

Key finding: Dominantly inherited mutations in MAPT, the gene that encodes tau, cause forms of frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism, proving that dysfunction of tau is sufficient to cause neurodegeneration and dementia. +4 more findings

• Other Dementias
• Brain Biology

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Epidemiology of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia in China, 1990-2010: a systematic review and analysis

79/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Caregiving Lancet (London, England)

Key finding: Our analysis suggests that previous estimates of dementia burden, based on smaller datasets, might have underestimated the burden of dementia in China.

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

A multicenter study of glucocerebrosidase mutations in dementia with Lewy bodies

71/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Getting a diagnosis JAMA neurology

Key finding: We found a significant association between GBA1 mutation carrier status and DLB, with an odds ratio of 8.28 (95% CI, 4.78-14.88). +2 more findings

• Other Dementias
• Genetics
• Diagnosis

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Antihypertensive classes, cognitive decline and incidence of dementia: a network meta-analysis

66/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Prevention and risk Journal of hypertension

Key finding: Our results support the notion that antihypertensive treatment has beneficial effects on cognitive decline and prevention of dementia, and indicate that these effects may differ between drug classes with ARBs possibly being the most effective. +4 more findings

• Risk Factors
• Prevention

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Critical window hypothesis of hormone therapy and cognition: a scientific update on clinical studies

48/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Prevention and risk Menopause (New York, N.Y.)

Key finding: A definitive trial to test the critical window hypothesis is not feasible. +1 more finding

• Treatments
• Prevention
• Clinical Trials

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Multiple risk pathways for schizophrenia converge in serine racemase knockout mice, a mouse model of NMDA receptor hypofunction

36/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Hippocampus size on brain scans Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Key finding: Schizophrenia is characterized by reduced hippocampal volume, decreased dendritic spine density, altered neuroplasticity signaling pathways, and cognitive deficits associated with impaired hippocampal function. +2 more findings

• Brain Biology

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Molecular mechanisms of depression: perspectives on new treatment strategies

35/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Risk factors Cellular physiology and biochemistry : international journal of experimental cellular physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology

Key finding: Depression is a multicausal disorder and has been associated with the risk to develop cancer, dementia, diabetes, epilepsy and stroke. +1 more finding

• Risk Factors

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Robust automated detection of microstructural white matter degeneration in Alzheimer's disease using machine learning classification of multicenter DTI data

52/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Digital health tools PloS one

Key finding: Accuracies for NB were significantly lower, ranging between 68% and 75%. +3 more findings

• Digital Tools
• Brain Scans

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Sex differences in resilience to childhood maltreatment: effects of trauma history on hippocampal volume, general cognition and subclinical psychosis in healthy adults

36/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Hippocampus size on brain scans Journal of psychiatric research

Key finding: Recent data suggests that a history of childhood maltreatment is associated with reductions in hippocampal volume in healthy adults. +4 more findings

• Brain Scans

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Automated analysis of FDG PET as a tool for single-subject probabilistic prediction and detection of Alzheimer's disease dementia

49/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Long-term cohort studies European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging

Key finding: The subject groups for model derivation comprised 80 healthy subjects (HS), 36 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who converted to AD dementia within 18 months, 85 non-converter MCI patients who did not convert within 24 months, and 67 AD dementia patients with baseline FDG PET scan were recruited from the AD Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. +3 more findings

• Brain Scans

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Expression of the phagocytosis-essential protein TREM2 is down-regulated by an aluminum-induced miRNA-34a in a murine microglial cell line

36/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed TREM2 and immune genetics Journal of inorganic biochemistry

Key finding: A major factor driving Aβ42 peptide accumulation is the inability of brain cells to effectively clear excessive amounts of Aβ42 via phagocytosis. +3 more findings

• Genetics
• Brain Biology

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Heightened emotional contagion in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease is associated with temporal lobe degeneration

51/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Mild cognitive impairment Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Key finding: Intrinsic connectivity imaging studies suggest that default mode network degradation in AD is accompanied by the release of an emotion-relevant salience network. +4 more findings

• Early Stage

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Alzheimer's disease: review of hormone therapy trials and implications for treatment and prevention after menopause

56/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Treatments The Journal of steroid biochemistry and molecular biology

Key finding: Hormonal changes associated with the menopausal transition and postmenopause have the potential to influence processes linked to Alzheimer's disease symptoms and pathogenesis, but effects of menopause on Alzheimer risk can be addressed only indirectly. +3 more findings

• Treatments
• Prevention
• Clinical Trials

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Ascending monoaminergic systems alterations in Alzheimer's disease. translating basic science into clinical care

36/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Genetics Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews

Key finding: The main cell populations of these systems including the locus coeruleus, the raphe nuclei, and the tuberomamillary nucleus undergo significant degeneration in AD, thereby depriving the hippocampal and cortical neurons from their critical modulatory influence. +1 more finding

• Genetics

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Absence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in retired football players with multiple concussions and neurological symptomatology

40/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Disease mechanisms Frontiers in human neuroscience

Key finding: Our case studies highlight that not all athletes with history of repeated concussions and neurological symptomology present neuropathological changes of CTE. +1 more finding

• Other Dementias
• Brain Biology

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

The relationship between executive function and falls and gait abnormalities in older adults: a systematic review

54/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Prevention and risk Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders

Key finding: Executive function was associated with falls and gait speed slowing in older adults. +3 more findings

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Enlarged perivascular spaces and cerebral small vessel disease

48/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Vascular contributions International journal of stroke : official journal of the International Stroke Society

Key finding: Enlarged perivascular spaces are associated with age, lacunar stroke subtype and white matter lesions and should be considered as another magnetic resonance imaging marker of cerebral small vessel disease. +2 more findings

• Other Dementias

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

16/100 ⚠ Report — not peer-reviewed Getting a diagnosis

• Diagnosis

Scored 40 on our rubric, shown as 16: non-peer-reviewed sources are capped at 16. See the breakdown.

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Preventing Alzheimer's disease-related gray matter atrophy by B-vitamin treatment

74/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Mild cognitive impairment Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Key finding: In an initial, randomized controlled study on elderly subjects with increased dementia risk (mild cognitive impairment according to 2004 Petersen criteria), we showed that high-dose B-vitamin treatment (folic acid 0.8 mg, vitamin B6 20 mg, vitamin B12 0.5 mg) slowed shrinkage of the whole brain volume over 2 y. +2 more findings

• Early Stage
• Treatments
• Prevention

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Identification of altered metabolic pathways in plasma and CSF in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease using metabolomics

54/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Mild cognitive impairment PloS one

Key finding: Metabolic profiling detected a total of significantly altered 342 plasma and 351 CSF metabolites, of which 22% were identified. +3 more findings

• Early Stage
• Biomarkers

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Accurate multimodal probabilistic prediction of conversion to Alzheimer's disease in patients with mild cognitive impairment

40/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Digital health tools NeuroImage. Clinical

Key finding: When the resulting probabilities from the GP are dichotomised to produce a binary classification, the results for predicting MCI conversion based on the combination of all three types of data show a balanced accuracy of 74%.

• Early Stage
• Brain Scans

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Low cerebral blood flow is associated with lower memory function in metabolic syndrome

51/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Prevention and risk Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.)

Key finding: The results underscore the importance of reducing the number of cardiovascular risk factors for maintaining CBF and cognition in an aging population. +4 more findings

• Risk Factors

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

EEG beta band activity is related to attention and attentional deficits in the visual performance of elderly subjects

45/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Cognitive tests and assessment International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology

Key finding: In a separate experiment we also observed that some elderly subjects expressed beta-band power decreases during a simple visual attention task, an effect which was accompanied by low behavioral accuracy in this subgroup. +3 more findings

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

The Clinical and Economic Burden of Newly Diagnosed Alzheimer’s Disease in a Medicare Advantage Population

54/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Health systems and care delivery American Journal of Alzheimer s Disease & Other Dementias®

Key finding: The HCRU and costs were greater for AD members during the year prior to diagnosis and during postdiagnosis years 1 and 2 compared to controls. +2 more findings

• Policy

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source