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Institute of Neuroscience, Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
First Department of Neurology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece
Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece
Institute of Neuroscience, Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
First Department of Neurology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece
Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece
Will The Research Lead To A Breakthrough
Experts in these fields told Healthline this particular research does provide some encouragement.
James Hendrix, director of global science initiatives at the Alzheimers Association, said although the three diseases involve different proteins and have different effects on the brain, there is still some commonality.
He likened it to studying the motors of cars, airplanes, and boats. Although theyre different modes of transport, they still have similar engines.
Its valuable to have this cross talk. You dont want to work in a silo, Hendrix told Healthline. A discovery in one area can revolutionize another field.
George Yohrling, PhD, the senior director of mission and scientific affairs at the Huntingtons Disease Society of America, agrees.
Theyre looking at whats going on at the cellular level. What cellular machinery is being disrupted, he told Healthline.
It gets down to the cellular level, added Hendrix. If you can understand whats going wrong, you might be able to prevent that mechanism from happening.
A breakthrough is sorely needed for all these diseases.
Late last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the death rate from Alzheimers in the United States increased 55 percent between 1999 and 2014.
In addition, about 50,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with Parkinsons every year. An estimated 500,000 Americans are living with the disease.
That would be wonderful, said Yohrling.
Potential For Therapeutic Targets
The researchers add that their findings have the potential to provide new therapeutic targets for both Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease.
Until now, nobody has really understood what the overlap between Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease was, or if it were important, says Jada Lewis, associate professor of neuroscience at the Centre for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease at the University of Florida. Our study ties these diseases together in a unique way.
The researchers conclude that their findings show that LRRK2 genetic studies in human tauopathies may be warranted.
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What Medications Are Available To Manage Dementia
Drugs approved for the most common form of dementia, Alzheimers disease, include:
- Cholinesterase inhibitors, including donepezil , rivastigmine and galantamine .
- NMDA receptor antagonist memantine .
- Anti-amyloid antibody aducanumab .
Healthcare providers use these drugs to treat people with some of the other forms of dementia.
Cholinesterase inhibitors and the NMDA receptor antagonist affect different chemical processes in your brain. Both drug classes have been shown to provide some benefit in improving or stabilizing memory function in some people with dementia.
Cholinesterase inhibitors manage the chemicals in your brain that allow messages to be sent between brain cells, which is needed for proper brain function. Memantine works similarly to cholinesterase inhibitors except it works on a different chemical messenger and helps the nerve cells survive longer.
Aducanumab targets amyloid proteins, which build up into the plaques seen in the brains of people with Alzheimers disease.
Although none of these drugs appear to stop the progression of the underlying disease, they may slow it down.
If other medical conditions are causing dementia or co-exist with dementia, healthcare providers prescribe the appropriate drugs used to treat those specific conditions. These other conditions include sleeping problems, depression, hallucinations and agitation.
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Consider The Neural And Behavioral Differences Between Multi Sclerosis Alzheimers And Parkinsons Disease
Consider the neural and behavioral differences between Multi Sclerosis, Alzheimers, and Parkinsons disease.400 Word count discussion
Answer all the prompts questions
Citations must be in APA format if need it
Consider the neural and behavioral differences between Multi Sclerosis, Alzheimers, and Parkinsons disease.
If you had to suffer from one of these diseases, which one would you rather suffer from and why? .
Now, take a look at the articles in Science Daily referring to Parkinsons and MS: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111012124205.htm, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111013121521.htm.
If you had to decide to provide government funding for ONLY ONE of these research programs , which one would you fund and wh
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Molecular Differences Between Clusters Can Be Linked To Known Disease Mechanisms
We next explored GO terms and KEGG pathways that were enriched in the difference between one cluster to all others. In other words, we looked into differential expression and differential methylation between cluster 1 and all others, cluster 2 and all others, and so on. For each of these comparisons a larger number of biological processes and pathways could be identified in both AD and PD . In agreement to the findings in the last Section, significant differences between clusters in methylation could only be found in PD patients, but not in AD. Transcriptome differences between clusters were observed in both diseases.
In the following, we highlight only selected examples : As explained previously, cluster 1 is strongly associated with the genetic burden on AKT signaling. At the transcriptional level we observed significant downregulation of genes in the cell cycle process in AD patients . Both can be linked together, as shown in Fig. A. AKT signaling influences acetylcholinesterase , which is thought to play a role in apoptotic processes and amyloid-beta formation. Amyloid-beta increases NAE1 via APP and influences the entire cell cycle process.
Figure 6
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clinical characteristics: e.g. post-mortem diagnosis, age at death, gender
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genome-wide transcriptome and methylome data from post-mortem brain tissue
Integrated AETIONOMY PD
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What Is Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease was named by James Parkinson nearly 100 years before Dr. Alois Alzheimer described the type of dementia called Alzheimer’s disease .
This disease was colloquially referred to as the “shaking palsy” by James Parkinson. It is diagnosed in people who exhibit at least two of these three symptoms: slowed movements , muscle rigidity, and tremor even at rest.
Other recognized associated signs of Parkinson’s Disease include having an expressionless face, difficulty swallowing, cramped handwriting, trouble getting out of a chair, and a shuffling gait. Many of the symptoms are a result of nerve cell death in those that produce dopamine.
In addition to movement-related symptoms, Parkinson’s symptoms may be non-motor. Examples of non-motor symptoms include indifference, depression, constipation, sleep disorders, loss of the ability to smell, and cognitive impairment.
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Biomarker Data Presented At Ctad
At CTAD, the final biomarker data confirmed that treatment with NE3107 was associated with trending improvements in plasma TNF-α, brain glutathione levels, lower CSF p-tau levels, and p-tau:Aβ42 ratios. I considered this to be the most interesting slide of the poster on this topic.
Biomarker data Phase 2 AD – CTAD 2022
How Is Parkinson Disease Diagnosed
Parkinson disease can be hard to diagnose. No single test can identify it. Parkinson can be easily mistaken for another health condition. A healthcare provider will usually take a medical history, including a family history to find out if anyone else in your family has Parkinsons disease. He or she will also do a neurological exam. Sometimes, an MRI or CT scan, or some other imaging scan of the brain can identify other problems or rule out other diseases.
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Things You Should Know About The Link Between Parkinsons And Dementia
Both Parkinsons disease and dementia were ravaging the brain and behavior of actor Robin Williams before his death, but at the time, he didnt realize he had the latter.
Despite the fact that the signs of this combination can be confusing, the double diagnosis of Parkinsons and dementia impacts a large number of people. Of the one million people who have Parkinsons in the U.S., 50 to 80 percent may have dementiaeither as a result of Parkinsons pathology, or separately.
Robin Williams widow, Susan, wrote an editorial published in Neurology that was addressed to neurologists after his death. In it, she shared what it was like seeing her husband experience both Parkinsons disease and Lewy body dementia firsthand.
My hope is that it will help you understand your patients along with their spouses and caregivers a little more, Susan wrote.
Williams was first diagnosed with Parkinsons disease, which at first seemed to provide some answers for his out-of-character symptoms.
But it wasnt until after his death that an autopsy revealed he had been in the later stages of Lewy body dementiaa common form of dementia characterized by deposits of Lewy body proteins in the brain, which can impact physical movement, mood, memory and behavior.
I will never know the true depth of his suffering, nor just how hard he was fighting, Susan wrote. But from where I stood, I saw the bravest man in the world playing the hardest role of his life.
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What Causes Lewy Body Dementia
The causes of LBD are not yet well understood, but research is ongoing in this area. There are probably multiple factors involved, including genetic and environmental risk factors that combine with natural aging processes to make someone susceptible to LBD.
For more information, visit www.lbda.org.
Modified with permission from the Lewy Body Dementia Association
To learn more about motor symptoms related to Parkinsons, visit here.
To learn more about non-motor symptoms related to Parkinsons, visit here.
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Prevalence Of Alzheimers Disease And Parkinsons Disease In China: An Updated Systematical Analysis
- 1Department of Geriatrics and Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Childrens Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
- 2Department of Preventive Medicine, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
- 3Shanghai 9th Peoples Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
Background: Alzheimers disease and Parkinsons disease are two major neurodegenerative diseases worldwide. Demographic aging is in rapid progress in China. Up-to-date estimates of AD and PD prevalence have not been provided.
Methods: Studies that reported the prevalence of AD and PD in China were identified via a systematic database search from 1985 to 2018. Meta-analysis, local polynomial regression and autoregressive integrated moving average model were used for analyses.
Results: A total of 99 studies were included in the study with populations of 385,312 and 227,228, respectively for AD and PD. The overall prevalence of AD and PD following age standardization was 3.20% and 1.06% , respectively in individuals over 60 years old. The rates increased drastically for every 10-years increment of age. The yearly prevalence of AD was predicted to increase from 3.81 to 6.17% in the next 5 years. Significant differences were observed between genders , and between education levels , but not between urban and rural settings.
Longitudinal Changes In Dopaminergic Medication Doses
Information on attrition in the cohort over time is shown in Fig. . A subset of participants visited the outpatient clinic for at least 2 years, and these patients, with the exception of one, underwent measurement of the LED values every 6 months up to 4 years . The doses of their dopaminergic medications were adjusted to control motor symptoms effectively by L.P.H. and S.Y.H. according to the patients responses. If the patients had intolerable dyskinesia or adverse effects from pharmacotherapy, no titration of the medications for PD was performed, and the assessment of LED changes was continued only up to that point. We calculated the LED of dopaminergic medication based on a previously reported method. We then performed a linear mixed model to investigate whether the LSV which was significantly correlated with MR estimates modified the longitudinal change in LED over time.
Fig. 5: Attrition rate in the cohort.
In this study, 333 patients were enrolled in the cross-sectional analysis, and 295 patients who were followed-up more than 2 years were enrolled in the longitudinal analysis.
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Diagnosis: Parkinsons Dementia Or Dementia With Lewy Bodies
During assessment, a specialist may look at when the dementia symptoms first appeared before reaching a diagnosis of Parkinsons dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies.
If there have been motor symptoms for at least one year before dementia symptoms occur, specialists will often give a diagnosis of Parkinsons dementia.
If dementia symptoms occur before or at the same time as motor symptoms, specialists will usually give a diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies.
However, it should be noted that in some cases of dementia with Lewy bodies, no motor symptoms develop at all.
Theres no single test diagnosis is made through several different assessments, usually starting with an appointment with your GP or Parkinsons nurse.
Some people find it helps to go to the appointment with someone who knows them well, who can give the GP or Parkinsons nurse information about changes theyve noticed.
Your GP can discuss your symptoms with you and carry out a physical examination, including blood and urine tests, to rule out other potential causes of the symptoms .
Your GP may also review your medication, in case your symptoms are side effects.
If your GP thinks you have dementia, they can refer you to a specialist, such as a neurologist, psychiatrist or geriatrician.
You might be referred to a memory clinic or memory service. In some areas of the country, you can refer yourself to these services.
But if you feel you need to see the specialist again, you can ask to be referred back.
Psychotic Symptoms And Others
In addition to the symptoms we already mentioned, other symptoms may appear in both diseases. For example, in Alzheimers disease, delirium appears occasionally, while it rarely ever does in Parkinsons. Its vital to remember that delirium is an organic disorder that mainly affects consciousness and attention.
Regarding psychotic symptoms, visual hallucinations can appear in both diseases, more or less in the same proportion. Delusions may also arise. They occur often in Alzheimers and occasionally in Parkinsons.
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Dat Availability And Mr Estimates
There was no association between MR estimates and DAT availability in the anterior caudate , posterior caudate , anterior putamen , ventral putamen , and ventral striatum .
Fig. 2: Correlation analysis between DAT availability and MR estimates.
ae DAT availability in each striatal subregion was not associated with MR estimates.
How Do Treatments Differ
MS treatments can ease your symptoms during an attack or slow down the diseaseâs effects on your body.
Steroids like prednisone calm the inflammation that damages your nerves.
Plasma exchange is another therapy if steroids donât work. Your doctor will use a machine to remove the plasma portion of your blood. The plasma gets mixed with a protein solution and put back into your body.
Some people with both diseases who take anti-inflammatory medicines like steroids see their Parkinsonâs symptoms get better.
Disease-modifying treatments slow down MS nerve damage and disability. They include:
National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke: âTremor Fact Sheet.â
Neurology: âParkinsonâs Disease in Multiple Sclerosis A Population-Based, Nationwide Study in Denmark .â
Mayo Clinic: âMultiple Sclerosis: Overview,â âMultiple Sclerosis: Symptoms and Causes,â âMultiple Sclerosis: Treatment,â âParkinsonâs Disease: Causes,â âParkinsonâs Disease: Definition,â âParkinsonâs Disease: Risk Factors,â âParkinsonâs Disease: Symptoms.â
Christopher Reeve Foundation: âHow the spinal cord works.â
National Association for Continence: âParkinsonâs Disease.â
National Multiple Sclerosis Society: âMS Symptoms,â âWho Gets MS? .â
National Parkinson Foundation: âNon-Motor Symptoms.â
Multiple Sclerosis Trust: âLhermitteâs sign.â
Johns Hopkins Medicine: âPlasmapheresis.â
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Treatment Of Pdd And Dlb
Unfortunately, since both types of Lewy Body Dementia often display similar symptoms, patients suffering from either PDD of DLB can get misdiagnosed and subsequently prescribed the incorrect medication and method of treatment. Caregivers and medical professionals alike can increase their understanding of symptoms for each disease to help them more quickly and accurately diagnose and treat each one.
The Lewy Body Dementia Resource Center provides literature, support groups, and help for caregivers grappling with care and treatment of a loved one who has Lewy Body Dementia. Our helpline is available 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for caregivers who have questions or are in need of support. Our online resource center seeks to bring awareness and support to caregivers of those suffering with Lewy Body Dementia. Please dont hesitate to reach out to us.
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Caring For Someone With Parkinsons
Practice patience and understanding when dealing with Parkinsons. You may be very frustrated and challenged as a caregiver, but those with Parkinsons are just as frustrated. Their physical and mental conditions can be debilitating, depressing, and humiliating.
Diet and nutrition can have a huge impact on the health and comfort of a Parkinson patient. Eating well, getting more rest, sleeping well, fresh air, and exercise can make a difference. Getting the right medication and complementary therapies is also important.
As Parkinsons impacts a patients motor skills, modifications to the living environment may have to be made to accommodate wheelchairs and limited mobility issues. Professional in-home assistance for Parkinsons can allow Parkinson patients to remain independent and can enhance quality of life.
Most importantly, seek help and support from family, friends, and caregiving support groups. Take advantage of the resources in your community. Shouldering all the burden can take a toll on a caregiver.
Take care of yourself or you wont be able to take care of your loved one. Follow the preventive advice provided above for yourself as well, and take deep breaths!
Resources
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