All Posts: brain
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Georgetown Clinical Trial Testing Nilotinib in Alzheimer’s Disease Begins
A clinical trial to examine the effect of nilotinib on clinical outcomes and biomarkers in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease has opened at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC).
Category: News Release
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Steroid Originally Discovered in the Dogfish Shark Attacks Parkinson’s-Related Toxin in Animal Model
A naturally occurring steroid made by the dogfish shark prevents the buildup of a lethal protein in animal studies, reports an international team of researchers. The clustering of this protein, alpha-synuclein (α-synuclein), is the hallmark of Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, suggesting a new potential compound for therapeutic research.
Category: News Release
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Volunteers Needed to Evaluate Sesame Street’s Autism Initiative
Parents of children with autism under the age of six are invited to participate in a new study designed to evaluate “Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children.” The initiative, developed by Sesame Workshop, is designed to reduce stigma and build understanding about autism spectrum disorder.
Category: News Release
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Nobel Prize-winning Science is Key to Georgetown Neurotherapeutic Research
Today, the 2016 Nobel Prize in the category of medicine or physiology was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi “for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy,” a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components.
Category: GUMC Stories
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Georgetown Receives FDA Clearance to Conduct Clinical Trial with Nilotinib in Alzheimer’s Disease
Georgetown University Medical Center today announces the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has completed its review of an investigational new drug application (IND) for the use of nilotinib in a phase II clinical trial for patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.
Category: News Release
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Resveratrol Appears to Restore Blood-Brain Barrier Integrity in Alzheimer’s Disease
TORONTO (July 27, 2016) — Resveratrol, given to Alzheimer’s patients, appears to restore the integrity of the blood-brain barrier, reducing the ability of harmful immune molecules secreted by immune cells to infiltrate from the body into brain tissues, say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center. The reduction in neuronal inflammation slowed the cognitive decline of patients, […]
Category: News Release
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More Evidence in Quest to Repurpose Cancer Drugs for Alzheimer’s Disease
TORONTO – An FDA approved drug to treat renal cell carcinoma appears to reduce levels of a toxic brain protein linked to dementia in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases when given to animals. This finding is the latest from Georgetown University Medical Center’s Translational Neurotherapeutics Program (TNP) examining tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
Category: News Release
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Study: Cancer Drug Restores Brain Dopamine, Reduces Toxic Proteins in Parkinson, Dementia
MEDIA CONTACT:Karen Teberkm463@georgetown.edu WASHINGTON (July 11, 2016) — A small proof of concept study provides molecular evidence that an FDA-approved drug for leukemia significantly increased brain dopamine and reduced toxic proteins linked to disease progression in patients with Parkinson’s disease or dementia with Lewy bodies. Dopamine is the brain chemical (neurotransmitter) lost as a result […]
Category: News Release
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Georgetown Alzheimer’s Researcher Has “BrightFocus”
(June 12, 2016) — Xiong Jiang, PhD, believes there is a way to identify patients at an early enough stage in Alzheimer’s disease — well before clinical symptoms crop up — that they could be effectively treated with novel agents. His ideas have earned him a 3-year $300,000 grant from the BrightFocus Foundation, and on […]
Category: GUMC Stories
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In the brain, one area sees familiar words as pictures, another sounds out words
Skilled readers can quickly recognize words when they read because the word has been placed in a visual dictionary of sorts which functions separately from an area that processes the sounds of written words, say GUMC neuroscientists. The visual dictionary idea rebuts a common theory that our brain needs to “sounds out” words each time we see them.
Category: News Release