Dynamics Of Lb Formation And Maturation Induce Mitochondrial Alterations
To validate our findings that mitochondrial dysfunctions are associated with the formation of the LB-like inclusions, we assessed the mitochondrial activity over time in PFF-treated neurons. ICC for mitochondrial markers revealed strong colocalization of mitochondria with ?-syn pS129+ aggregates starting from D14 after PFF exposure . To assess whether this recruitment of mitochondrial components influences mitochondrial function, we applied a combined protocol of high-resolution respirometry with Amplex red-based fluorometry to measure the production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species . Routine respiration of intact cells was significantly reduced at D21 , while it was similar to PBS-treated control cells at the other assessed time points . Plasma membranes were subsequently permeabilized using digitonin, and substrates feeding into NADH-linked respiration were supplied. In the absence and presence of ADP, these respirational states did not significantly differ across all tested time points following PFF and PBS treatment.
The 6 Stages Of Parkinson’s And Lewy Body Disease
In 2003, Heiko Braak identified a pattern of Lewy body deposition, in the synucleinopathies , which include Parkinson’s Disease , Multiple Systems Atrophy , Progressive Supra-nuclear Palsy and Dementia .
The pattern that he identified has been termed the Braak Staging of Lewy Body inclusions. More current research shows that Lewy Body pathology can spread from one area of the nervous system to another, and it’s conceivable that this happens in a prion-like fashion. There are also some studies that show alpha-synuclein is not only just an intracellular protein but is extracellular as well, which could explain to some degree, the progression to other areas of the brain.
The first three stages of Braak’s staging, are largely “asymptomatic”to the uninformed individual.
In stage 1, inclusion bodies begin accumulating in the olfactory bulb and a part of our brainstem called the Vagus Nucleus. Symptoms at this point may include a change in the ability to smell and taste, as well as a constellation of symptoms we call autonomic symptoms, which are often casually related to “aging”. The symptoms may, or may not include: constipation, sexual dysfunction, dry eyes, dry skin, light-headedness, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, swelling of the hands and feet, bladder dysfunction, an increase in heart rate or arrhythmia, dizziness when getting out of a chair or bed, etc.
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Lewy Body Dementia Symptoms
Symptoms of LBD can fluctuate but usually become progressively worse over time. Early in the disease, fluctuations between normal and abnormal behavior, mood, and cognitive ability can occur. The central feature of this disease is progressive dementia shown by deficits in attention and minor dysfunctions in the early stages that can progress to severe dementia.
In severe dementia, the person’s inability to carry out normal daily functions, loss of recognition of family members, and other severe cognitive, behavior and mood problems can render the individual virtually helpless. Other features include fluctuating cognition, visual hallucinations, and spontaneous features of Parkinsonism such as body stiffness, tremors, shuffling gait, emotionless facial features and/or decreased coordination.
As mentioned previously, the diagnosis is made on the basis of symptoms and their time of occurrence in patients. However, most doctors that make the diagnosis also typically use other tests primarily to rule out other causes for the symptoms.
There are no sensitive or specific blood or urine tests that diagnose LBD. However, routine laboratory tests such as a basic metabolic panel, CBC, thyroid studies, vitamin B12 levels and tests for syphilis, Lyme disease, or HIV also may be ordered. MRI, CT scans, and other studies of the brain are used to help distinguish LBD from other problems that have similar symptoms.
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The Process Of Lewy Body Formation Rather Than Simply
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Lewy Bodies And Parkinsons Disease
A person with Parkinsons disease may develop dementia and have problems with reasoning and thinking. Lewy bodies are a feature of several brain disorders, including Parkinsons disease and Alzheimers disease, and they may cause rigid muscles and problems with movement and posture.
Research suggests that the similarity of the symptoms of Parkinsons disease and Lewy body dementia may be indicative of a shared link to how the brain processes alpha-synuclein.
It is not possible to test for the presence of Lewy bodies, so researchers must try to determine their effects by carrying out postmortem studies.
There is currently no cure for dementia. However, medication can alleviate the symptoms, while a team of medical professionals and therapists may help a person develop strategies to manage their daily activities.
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The Kensington Falls Church Memory Care Community
The Kensington Falls Church is an enhanced assisted living, Alzheimers care, dementia care, and memory care community located in Falls Church, Virginia.
Our Enhanced Assisted Living Residence license enables us to provide a higher continuum of healthcare thats not normally seen in other assisted living communities.
This includes employing a staff of registered nurses 24 hours a day who can administer medications and injections. This allows all of our residents to age in place, meaning they can stay in our community as long as theyd like, even as their healthcare needs change.
Our community is also uniquely capable of providing world-class care for people experiencing memory loss due to Alzheimers, Parkinsons, and Lewy body dementia.
We have two distinct memory care communities that provide care for people experiencing early to middle and late stages of dementia Haven and Connections.
Both our Haven and Connections neighborhoods are fully-secured environments that provide a higher level of care and supervision for our residents with memory loss.
Each community is specially designed to cater to the needs of our residents with memory loss, and feature wander technology to keep track of our residents, and also feature lots of sunlight in a homelife setting that fosters calm and comfort.
At the Kensington Falls Church, we extend Our Promise to you to love and take care of your family as we would our own.
What Are The Types Of Lewy Body Dementia
There are two types of LBD: dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease dementia.
Both types cause the same changes in the brain. And, over time, they can cause similar symptoms. The main difference is in when the cognitive and movement symptoms start.
Dementia with Lewy bodies causes problems with thinking ability that seem similar to Alzheimer’s disease. Later, it also causes other symptoms, such as movement symptoms, visual hallucinations, and certain sleep disorders. It also causes more trouble with mental activities than with memory.
Parkinson’s disease dementia starts as a movement disorder. It first causes the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease: slowed movement, muscle stiffness, tremor, and a shuffling walk. Later on, it causes dementia.
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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.
How Can A Person Diagnosed With Lewy Body Dementia Live The Best Life Possible
First, its important to interact with others as much as possible. Plus exercise and eat a healthy diet to keep mind and body as strong as possible.
Use music and aromatherapy to reduce anxiety and improve mood.
Other things you can do involve seeking the help and assistance of others. Therapists can improve the quality of life of someone living with Lewy body dementia. Therapists include:
- Physical therapists: These therapists can help improve physical strength, flexibility, balance and walking mechanics.
- Occupational therapists: These therapists can teach skills and methods to maintain your ability to perform activities of everyday life and remain independent.
- Speech therapists: These therapists can improve swallowing difficulties and ability to speak more clearly.
Persons with Lewy body dementia and their families can also benefit from counseling with a psychotherapist. This counselor teaches how to manage emotional and behavioral problems. Finally, joining a support group there are support groups for persons with LBD and for the caregivers of persons with LBD. Support groups help solve day-to-day problems and frustrations through sharing similar experiences. See the resource section of this article for links to support groups.
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What Happens In Dlb
People with DLB may have trouble focusing, remembering things, staying awake during the day, or staying asleep at night. They may become more frustrated or confused because of the lack of sleep. They may also hallucinate and see people, objects, or animals that are not there.
Some people with DLB will need help with walking, while others may have hunched posture or trouble using their hands and feet because of stiff muscles. People with DLB may appear to be better and need less help on some days, only to become worse and more confused again and need more help the next day or in a few days. This is because their energy level and focus will vary.
DLB is a disease that changes with time. A person with DLB can live for many years with the disease. Research suggests that a person with DLB may live an average of 57 years with the disease, although this can vary from person to person.
How Is Lewy Body Dementia Different From Alzheimers
Alzheimers disease is the most common type of dementia, and LBD is the second most common. Because of the overlap in symptoms, it can be difficult to diagnose one or the other initially.
Both diseases are caused by sticky protein buildups in the brain. However, with Alzheimers disease, these protein build ups cause amyloid plaques, caused by the amyloid protein, and neurofibrillary tangles caused by the tau protein.
When these proteins accumulate, they interfere with the brain and bodys sense of communication, affecting cognition, movement, and behavior.
One of the key differences between the two diseases is hallucinations.
Hallucinations are common early on in people with LBD, but take a long time to develop for people with Alzheimers disease.
The other key indicators somebody has LBD rather than Alzheimers is developing Parkinsons-like tremors and muscle rigidity, and difficulty sleeping.
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Cognitive Symptoms Of Lewy Body Dementia
LBD causes changes in thinking abilities. These changes may include:
- Visual hallucinations, or seeing things that are not present. Visual hallucinations occur in up to 80 percent of people with LBD, often early on. Nonvisual hallucinations, such as hearing or smelling things that are not present, are less common than visual ones but may also occur.
- Unpredictable changes in concentration, attention, alertness, and wakefulness from day to day and sometimes throughout the day. Ideas may be disorganized, unclear, or illogical. These kinds of changes are common in LBD and may help distinguish it from Alzheimer’s disease.
- Severe loss of thinking abilities that interfere with daily activities. Unlike in Alzheimer’s dementia, memory problems may not be evident at first but often arise as LBD progresses. Other changes related to thinking may include poor judgment, confusion about time and place, and difficulty with language and numbers.
Asceneurons Innovation In Pdd And Dlb
Several symptomatic treatments addressing motoric disturbances in PD are currently available. In contrast, there is a very high unmet medical need for novel symptomatic medications to mitigate the cognitive decline in Parkinsons disease dementia patients, since available options have limited efficacy and considerable side effects. As the disease progresses, balancing the benefits of medications with their side effects becomes challenging for caregivers.
Asceneuron has generated small molecules of novel chemical classes that have the potential to deliver novel, well-tolerated and efficacious drugs to treat learning and memory deficits in dementia. Our positive allosteric modulators of the M1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor have the potential to bring the first approved treatment for PDD to patients and a new class of molecules for the treatment of dementia in general. M1 PAMs induce a change in the shape of the receptor, enhancing binding to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. As a result, receptor activity is potentiated so that it can still fulfill its signaling functions, critical for cognition, even in situations where acetylcholine levels are reduced as observed in Parkinsons disease dementia and other dementia in general.
Given the high unmet medical need in PDD, a symptomatic treatment for one of the more debilitating facets of PD would bring significant benefit to PD patients and their caregivers.
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Movement Problems And Lewy Body Dementia
Some people with LBD may not experience significant movement problems for several years. Others may have them early on. At first, movement symptoms, such as a change in handwriting, may be very mild and easily overlooked. Movement problems may include:
- Muscle rigidity or stiffness
What Is Lewy Body Disease
Lewy body disease is caused by the degeneration and death of nerve cells in the brain. The name comes from the presence of abnormal spherical structures, called Lewy bodies, which develop inside nerve cells. It is thought that these may contribute to the death of the brain cells. They are named after the doctor who first wrote about them. It is sometimes referred to as Diffuse Lewy body disease.
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Dementia With Lewy Bodies
Initial cognitive deterioration in dementia with Lewy bodies resembles that in other dementias. However, dementia with Lewy bodies often manifests with early and prominent deficits in attention, executive function, and visuoperceptual ability prominent or persistent memory impairment tends to occur as the dementia progresses.
Extrapyramidal symptoms occur. However, in dementia with Lewy bodies , cognitive and extrapyramidal symptoms usually begin within 1 year of each other. Also, the extrapyramidal symptoms differ from those of Parkinson disease in dementia with Lewy bodies, tremor does not occur early, rigidity of axial muscles with gait instability occurs early, and deficits tend to be symmetric. Repeated falls are common.
Fluctuating cognitive function is a relatively specific feature of dementia with Lewy bodies. Periods of being alert, coherent, and oriented may alternate with periods of being confused and unresponsive to questions, usually over a period of days to weeks but sometimes during the same interview.
Memory is impaired, but the impairment appears to result more from deficits in alertness and attention than in memory acquisition thus, short-term recall is affected less than digit span memory .
Patients may stare into space for long periods. Excessive daytime drowsiness is common.
Visuospatial and visuoconstructional abilities are affected more than other cognitive deficits.
What Are The Treatments For Lewy Body Dementia
There is no cure for LBD, but treatments can help with the symptoms:
- Medicines may help with some of the cognitive, movement, and psychiatric symptoms
- Physical therapy can help with movement problems
- Occupational therapy may help find ways to more easily do everyday activities
- Speech therapy may help with swallowing difficulties and trouble speaking loudly and clearly
- Mental health counseling can help people with LBD and their families learn how to manage difficult emotions and behaviors. It can also help them plan for the future.
- Music or art therapy may reduce anxiety and improve well-being
Support groups can also be helpful for people with LBD and their caregivers. Support groups can give emotional and social support. They are also a place where people can share tips about how to deal with day-to-day challenges.
NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
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The Processes Associated With Lb Formation And Maturation Rather Than Simply
Several studies have suggested that the formation of LBs represents a protective mechanism whereby aggregated and potentially toxic ?-syn species are actively recruited into aggresome-like structures to prevent their aberrant interactions with other cytosolic proteins and their deleterious effects on cellular organelles . A protective role for LBs is plausible if one assumes that this process is efficient. However, if this process stalls for any reason, then this will likely expose neurons to deleterious effects mediated by the presence of toxic proteins and damaged organelles and vesicles. To test this hypothesis, it is crucial to develop a neuronal and animal model system that enables uncoupling of the different stages of ?-syn aggregation, fibrillization, and LB formation. One key advantage of neuronal models, as shown in this study, is that they permit detailed investigation of the molecular and cellular changes that occur during LB formation with high temporal resolution.
Treatment Of Behavior And Mood Problems In Lewy Body Dementia
Behavioral and mood problems in people with LBD can arise from hallucinations, delusions, pain, illness, stress, or anxiety. They may also be the result of frustration, fear, or feeling overwhelmed. The person may resist care or lash out verbally or physically.
Medications are appropriate if the behavior interferes with the person’s care or the safety of the person or others. If medication is used, then the lowest possible dose for the shortest period of time is recommended.
The first step is to visit a doctor to see if a medical condition unrelated to LBD is causing the problem. Injuries, fever, urinary tract or pulmonary infections, pressure ulcers , and constipation can worsen behavioral problems and increase confusion.
Certain medications, such as anticholinergics and antihistamines may also cause behavioral problems. For example, some medications for sleep problems, pain, bladder control, and LBD-related movement symptoms can cause confusion, agitation, hallucinations, and delusions. Similarly, some anti-anxiety medicines can actually increase anxiety in people with LBD. Review your medications with your doctor to determine if any changes are needed.
Antidepressants can be used to treat depression and anxiety, which are common in LBD. Many of them are often well tolerated by people with LBD.
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