Smartphone-assisted “scavenger hunt” identifies people at risk for dementia

Perspectives for early detection

11-Oct-2024 - Researchers from DZNE and Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg have identified individuals with increased risk for dementia using mobility data, recorded during a smartphone-based wayfinding task on the university campus. The findings, reported in the journal “PLOS Digital Health”, show the ...

Blood Testing for so-called MicroRNAs Can Detect Dementia

German-American research team highlights new diagnostic option for Alzheimer’s

23-Sep-2024 - Dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease and its preliminary stage can be detected by measuring so-called microRNAs in blood. Researchers from DZNE in Göttingen, together with US experts from Boston University and the Indiana University School of Medicine, report on this in the scientific journal ...

More Brain Lesions in Senior Women than in Men of the Same Age

The Extent of Abnormalities in the Brain’s White Matter Grows Significantly After Menopause

04-Jul-2022 - In women after menopause, the extent of certain brain lesions is larger than in men of the same age. DZNE researchers come to this conclusion based on the assessment of more than 3,400 adults as part of the Bonn Rhineland Study. A team led by neuroscientist Monique Breteler reports on the ...

The Retina as a Potential Biomarker for Reduced Brain Matter

“There is evidence that the retina can serve as a window into the brain”

17-Mar-2022 - Researchers from the Department of Ophthalmology at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE) have found a close connection between the dimensions of retinal structures and those of the brain. They report on this in the journal “Scientific ...

In neurodegenerative diseases, brain immune cells have a “ravenous appetite” for sugar

The interpretation of certain brain scans needs rethinking

15-Oct-2021 - At the beginning of neurodegenerative disease, the immune cells of the brain – the “microglia” – take up glucose, a sugar molecule, to a much greater extent than hitherto assumed. Studies by the DZNE, the LMU München and the LMU Klinikum München, published in the journal Science Translational ...

Investigational gene regulation therapy lowers levels of Tau protein in the brain and could protect against Alzheimer's

Zinc finger technology as a starting point for future therapies

25-Mar-2021 - Researchers at the DZNE (Germany), at Massachusetts General Hospital (USA) and at the genomic medicine company Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. tested a novel gene regulation approach to treat brain diseases such as Alzheimer's in laboratory studies. It leverages zinc finger proteins, which ...

Early Prediction of Alzheimer’s Progression in Blood

23-Jan-2019 - Years before symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease manifest, the brain starts changing and neurons are slowly degraded. Scientists at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research (HIH) and the University Hospital Tübingen now show that a ...

The brain’s “rising stars”: New options against Alzheimer’s?

Targeting astrocytes might help to alleviate symptoms of disease

07-May-2018 - A study by scientists of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) points to a novel potential approach against Alzheimer’s disease. In studies in mice, the researchers were able to show that blocking a particular receptor located on astrocytes normalized brain function and improved ...

Protein Associated with Parkinson’s Travels from Brain to Gut

A new laboratory study provides clues on a particular pathway of “alpha-synuclein” diffusion

06-Jan-2017 - Researchers of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) have found that “alpha-synuclein”, a protein involved in a series of neurological disorders including Parkinson’s disease, is capable of travelling from brain to stomach and that it does so following a specific pathway. Donato ...

Early signs of Alzheimer’s detected in cerebrospinal fluid

Immune cells of the brain become active years before the disease becomes apparent

19-Dec-2016 - Little is known about the role of the brain‘s immune system in Alzheimer's disease. Researchers at the Munich site of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the hospital of the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich have now found an early immune response in individuals ...