Contributed by UCI MIND faculty member Kei Igarashi, PhD. In a paper recently published in Neuron, our lab found for the first time that “remapping” of hippocampus place cells, a brain circuit function to distinguish distinct environments, is disrupted in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model. Our work suggests that remapping impairment is a circuit mechanism causing spatial memory impairment in Alzheimer’s disease. We hope that, by developing methods to reactivate remapping, we can develop new treatments for spacial memory impairment in Alzheimer’s disease patients in a near future.
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National Institutes of Health grant helps local researchers continue work on cause and treatment of dementia. The National Institutes of Health has awarded $14.4 million to the UCI MIND institute at UC Irvine to continue its crucial work in the study of Alzheimer’s disease, for which there remains no cure or prevention. UCI MIND, formally known as the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders, is one of only 32 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers around the country funded by the National Institute on Aging, an arm of the NIH. UC Irvine is one of the original half-dozen research centers established…
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Dr. Elizabeth Head (left) studies Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease at UCI. In an accompanying editorial, Elizabeth Head, PhD, of University of California Irvine, and Beau Ances, MD, PhD, of Washington University St Louis, wrote, "Fortea and colleagues noted similarities between biomarkers reflecting Alzheimer disease pathogenesis in individuals with Down syndrome and individuals with late onset and autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease. These results provide strong evidence that studies of people with Down syndrome can inform research on late-onset and autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease." Read more here >
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Social engagement while drinking may be why long-lifers tend to have one to two drinks per day, says University of California, Irvine’s Claudia Kawas, M.D., whose 90+ Study found this sweet spot. … We asked our four longevity experts how studying the oldest of the old had changed their lives. Here are eight changes they’ve made—that you can make too. … Claudia Kawas, M.D., of UC Irvine. Cut back a little on coffee. “I’m a big coffee drinker, and our study showed that 200 to 400 mg of caffeine a day is the sweet spot.” Tries to take the stairs and park…
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As COVID-19 cases spread across the state and nation, demand is growing for blood tests to identify people who may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus and developed antibodies to it. Such antibodies may mean these individuals have at least some immunity to the virus, formally named SARS-CoV2, and therefore may be able to return to work and school — and help jump-start the flagging U.S. economy. Results may also help identify COVID-19 antibody-positive people whose blood donations could be used to make convalescent plasma, an investigational treatment for seriously ill COVID-19 patients, according to the U.S. Food & Drug…
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Epidemiology professor Karen Edwards, department of Public HealthSteve Zylius / UCI UCI epidemiologist offers advice on healthy travel, recreation during the pandemic Despite the all-encompassing disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, time marches on, with summer just around the corner. For many, June signals the beginning of vacation season. But as COVID-19 continues to spread, where does summer travel stand? States are reopening and inviting tourists – and their dollars – to return. But is it safe to take a trip? What do we need to know about hotel or Airbnb lodgings? About eating in restaurants? About large public gatherings? Karen…
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In March, the UCI Medical Center became the first hospital in Orange County to provide COVID-19 testing. In this episode of the UCI Podcast Video Series, UCI MIND faculty member Dr. Ed Monuki, chair of pathology who leads UCI Health’s testing efforts, discusses how the campus came together to address this community need and how future testing for the coronavirus and its antibodies will play an important role with the resumption of our regular daily activities, like going back to work or the classroom. https://youtu.be/U6MJL-KoOrU
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UCI MIND faculty member Masashi Kitazawa, PhD comments for Scientific American: "In a field where scientists have spent decades focused on genetics and the buildup of damaged protein fragments called beta-amyloid as causes of the disease...now many experts agree that air pollution plays a major role. This assessment is echoed by Masashi Kitazawa, a toxicologist at the University of California, Irvine, and an expert on environmental toxins. “Genetics is huge in Alzheimer's research, and for years almost no one wanted to look beyond genes,” he says. “But in the past three or four years the number of papers linking air pollution and cognitive decline…
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Irvine, CA - May 12, 2020 - A team of researchers from the University of California, Irvine and San Diego have been awarded $3.8 million by the National Institute on Aging to conduct an epigenomic analysis of neural circuits in the brain. By revealing molecular changes that occur during the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the team hopes to identify new therapeutic targets and molecular biomarkers for early detection and better treatment. The interdisciplinary research team is led by multiple principal investigators, including Xiangmin Xu, PhD, a professor of anatomy and neurobiology and director of the Center for Neural Circuit…
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While doing a video interview with TIME, Craig Stark, professor at the University of California, Irvine’s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, said that his eighth grade son was on a headset chatting with his friends while gaming. “I’m great with that,” says Stark. Still, he adds, “if you’re gaming 20 hours a day, let’s get out, let’s do some other stuff, let’s not just talk to each other on a screen. But in terms of the notion that video games are actively rotting the brain? No, I don’t see any evidence for that.”
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Amyloid accumulation not the only risk factor in Alzheimer’s risk Irvine, Calif. – April 8, 2020 – Amyloid is a key feature of Alzheimer’s disease, but the accumulation of these sticky proteins may not be the only risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study published this week. Other, modifiable risk factors, such as the amount of fats in our blood and how efficiently our bodies generate energy could also play important roles.
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Stalked by the Fear That Dementia Is Stalking You The New York Times (Kaiser Health News) - Feb. 20, 2020 I spoke to half a dozen experts, and none was in favor of genetic testing, except in unusual circumstances. “Having the APOE4 allele does not mean you’ll get Alzheimer’s disease. Plenty of people with Alzheimer’s don’t have the allele,” said Mark Mapstone, a professor of neurology at the University of California, Irvine. “And conversely, plenty of people with the allele never develop Alzheimer’s.”
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Orange County Business Journal - Feb. 17, 2020 Dr. Ruth Benca, who is chair of the Psychiatry and Human Behavior School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine in 2018 restarted the UCI sleep center. She’s designed a new, 6,000-square foot facility in Newport Beach … and has recruited doctors from a variety of fields, such as Dr. Kevin Im, who won a 2014 national award for a sleep study, Dr. Rami Khayat, the center’s medical director and expert on the effects of sleep apnea on cardiovascular diseases, and Dr. Behrouz Jafari, an expert in pulmonology. “We’ve built this…
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UCI MIND faculty member, Craig Stark, PhD was recently quoted in Science Magazine discussing the critical role scientists play in helping improve society. The article focuses on a push to better understand the science behind addiction, and how scientists are spreading evidence-based treatment knowledge through regional and national seminars. By regularly hosting seminars to gather scientific and legal experts, researchers can better inform the criminal justice system on how to improve substance abuse recovery rates in the incarcerated population. Dr. Stark, a neurobiologist who specializes in brain imaging at UCI, has presented at dozens of these legal seminars, speaking on…
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Stewart Cohen/Getty Images NPR recently spoke on All Things Considered about the EXERT Study, a nationwide clinical trial of exercise led by Carl Cotman, PhD, UCI MIND's Founding Director, and Laura Baker, PhD, Associate Director of the ADRC at Wake Forest School of Medicine. The study involves an 18-month exercise program at the local YMCA for 65-89 year-olds with Mild Cognitive Impairment. Throughout the program, researchers look at participants' cognition, blood flow, atrophy (cell loss), and harmful protein accumulation in the brain. Researchers hope to learn about the clinical effect of exercise, as well as the scientific basis for their…
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Contributed by Carl W. Cotman, PhD and Nicole C. Berchtold, PhD It is increasingly recognized that exercise builds brain health. At a fundamental level, brain health and function depend on the expression of the brain’s genes, the building blocks of cells. In a recent paper that appeared in the journal “Neurobiology of Aging” (2019), Drs. Carl Cotman, Nicole Berchtold and coworkers demonstrated that in the brains of healthy older people, exercise reprograms gene expression patterns to a more youthful state, even in cognitively normal people (75-100 yrs old). Genes that were particularly targeted are those that boost cellular energy production and build…
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Contributed by Joan Steffan, PhD In a recent paper published in Proceedings of the National Academic of Sciences, colleagues and I show that a critical regulator of the immune system - called kinase IKKbeta - helps slow the onset of Huntington’s disease (HD) in mice, and this may be due to activation of a process called autophagy. Autophagy helps cells clean out and recycle their 'trash'. Accumulation of trash can occur as we age and when disease is present, so regular cleaning enabled by autophagy is critical to maintain cellular function. In HD, brain cell autophagy fails, leading to an accumulation of harmful proteins that…
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