Conclusion : Because diminished cholinergic transmission and increase in cholesterol levels appear to be responsible for the development of amyloid plaques and dementia in Alzheimer patients, PA may prove to be a useful memory-restorative agent. It would be worthwhile to explore the potential of this plant in the management of Alzheimer's disease. (Source: Indian Journal of Pharmacology)MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

Poster Warns that Traumatic Brain Injury May Lead to Memory Loss, Early Dementia, Depression (Source: Health News: CBSNews.com)

Poster Warns that Traumatic Brain Injury May Lead to Memory Loss, Early Dementia, Depression (Source: Health News: CBSNews.com)

Poster Warns that Traumatic Brain Injury May Lead to Memory Loss, Early Dementia, Depression (Source: Health News: CBSNews.com)

Poster Warns that Traumatic Brain Injury May Lead to Memory Loss, Early Dementia, Depression (Source: Health News: CBSNews.com)MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

Poster Warns that Traumatic Brain Injury May Lead to Memory Loss, Early Dementia, Depression (Source: Health News: CBSNews.com)

Poster Warns that Traumatic Brain Injury May Lead to Memory Loss, Early Dementia, Depression (Source: Health News: CBSNews.com)

Poster Warns that Traumatic Brain Injury May Lead to Memory Loss, Early Dementia, Depression (Source: Health News: CBSNews.com)

Poster Uses Harsher Language than Before, Warns that Brain Injury May Lead to Memory Loss, Early Dementia, Depression (Source: Health News: CBSNews.com)

Test your knowledge with this case challenge of a 69-year-old man with memory loss. Medscape Neurology & Neurosurgery (Source: Medscape Today Headlines)

A compassionate story with drama and wit: The Opera Group returns to the Linbury Studio Theatre for The Lion’s Face, the latest of their always popular and provocative new works. Told through theatre and music, the story follows four characters who are touched in different ways by memory loss and ageing. The opera begins with one apparently trivial event – a man forgets his own birthday – but it p (Source: Institute of Psychiatry | Events)MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

Conclusions: Our study shows that clinically relevant concentrations of propofol induce c-Fos and down regulated Egr-1 expression via an MAPK/ERK mediated pathway. We demonstrated that propofol induces a time and dose dependant transcription of IEGs c-Fos and Egr-1 in rat hippocampal slices. We further demonstrate for the first time that propofol induced IEG expression was mediated via a MAPK/ERK dependant pathway. These novel findings provide a new avenue to investigate transcription-dependant mechanisms and suggest a parallel pathway of action with an unclear role in the activity of general anesthetics. (Source: BioMed Central)

Conclusions  These results suggest that the PDE4 inhibitor rolipram reverses cognitive deficits associated with AD most likely via increased cAMP/CREB signaling in the hippocampus; PDE4 could be a target for drugs that improve cognition in AD. Content Type Journal ArticleCategory original investigationDOI 10.1007/s00213-010-1943-3Authors Yu-Fang Cheng, Southern Medical University Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences Guangzhou Guangdong 510515 People’s Republic of ChinaChuang Wang, Southern Medical University Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences Guangzhou Guangdong 510515 People’s Republic of ChinaHuan-Bing Lin, Southern Medical University Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences Guangzhou Guang...

Source: PharmaTimes Area: News PharmaTimes reports that advisers to the United States US Food and Drug Administration have voted 10-6 against recommending approval of the drug Qnexa® (phentermine/topiramate) for the treatment of obesity. Although the advisory panel did not dispute the effectiveness of the drug, the panel felt that the potential side effects such as depression, memory loss, increased heart rate and birth defects outweighed the benefits. The panel also expressed concern that, at just over 12 months, the data provided by the company were not long term enough. (Source: NeLM - News)

Conclusion This is a cross-sectional analysis of data from a large group of postmenopausal women who were about to participate in the Women’s Health Initiative trials of hormone replacement therapy. This study’s strengths include its size (8,745 women), and its accurate collection of a large amount of medical and health information from the women. It also considered the numerous confounders that could affect the observed relationship between BMI and waist-hip measurements and cognitive scores. The analysis demonstrated a complex relationship between obesity, body measurements and cognitive function, with cognitive scores appearing to decrease as BMI increased, and a higher waist-hip ratio (indicating higher central fat mass) appearing to have a ‘protective’ effect. However, it cann...

Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling 16(1): 14-26 Abstract The current study investigated the ability of CogniScreen to differentiate older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from those reporting symptoms of depression. Participants included 140 community-based adults (30 MCI, 15 self-rated depressed, and 95 typical older adults) aged 50-89 years. Intergroup comparisons performed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses suggest tasks within CogniScreen are sensitive to clinically significant memory loss. Data provided partial support for some CogniScreen tasks to also differentiate individuals with MCI from those who are depressed. Results suggest CogniScreen may be potentially useful in screening older adults for early cognitive decline. (Source: Austral...MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that detailed contextual memories require the hippocampus, whereas memories that lose precision can be retrieved without this structure. These findings can account for discrepancies in the literature-memories of our distant past can be either lost or retained after hippocampus damage depending on their quality-and provide a new framework for understanding memory consolidation. PMID: 20637623 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Current Biology)

Authors: Joshi SA, Chavhan SS, Sawant KK Sustained release nanoparticulate formulations of Rivastigmine tartrate (RT) were prepared, optimized (using factorial design) and characterized using the biodegradable polymers, PLGA and PBCA as carriers. The pharmacodynamic performances of the nanoparticles (NPs) was evaluated for brain targeting and memory improvement in Scopolamine-induced amnesic mice using Morris Water Maze Test. PLGA NPs were prepared by nanoprecipitation technique while PBCA NPs were prepared by emulsion polymerization technique. Effect of key formulation variables on particle size (PS) and percentage drug entrapment (PDE) of NPs was studied by using factorial design. PLGA NPs showed PS of 135.6+/-4.2 nm and PDE of 74.46+/-0.76% whereas, PBCA NPS showed PS of 146.8+/-2.6...

Nature 466, 299 (2010). doi:10.1038/466299d Cited research Cell142, 39–51 (2010)Researchers have found a small molecule that can help to keep newborn neurons alive in a memory region of rodent brains, suggesting that it might one day be developed into a treatment to avert memory loss.Andrew Pieper (Source: Nature)

It seems that hardly a week goes by these days without a front page article in the New York Times about Alzheimer's Disease. Today's piece addresses a proposed revamping of the way Alzheimer's is diagnosed: specifically, it would reflect advances in brain imaging that can now be used to detect brain evidence of dementia years before actual clinical evidence. Dr. Paul Aisen, a well-known Alzheimer's researcher who is working on the proposed guidelines, observed that "we now view dementia as a late stage in the process." He predicts that people in their 50's without any evidence of memory loss or other cognitive problems will routinely have tests such as MRI scans or spinal taps that will predict their likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease: by then we will hopefully have medications t...