Medicine & Health

A new School of Medicine study indicates that people with dementia — whose parents also had dementia — develop symptoms an average of six years earlier than their parents.

A School of Medicine study has found that brain immune cells called microglia form the crucial link between protein clumping and brain damage. Suppressing such cells might prevent or delay the onset of dementia in people.

A team led by researchers at the School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified a pair of genes that influence risk for Alzheimer’s disease. The genes — known as MS4A4A and TREM2 — affect the brain’s immune cells. They influence Alzheimer’s risk by altering levels of TREM2, a protein that is believed to help microglia cells clear excessive amounts of the Alzheimer’s proteins amyloid and tau from the brain.

A blood test to detect the brain changes of early Alzheimer’s disease has moved one step closer to reality. Researchers from the School of Medicine report that they can measure levels of the Alzheimer’s protein amyloid beta in the blood and use such levels to predict whether the protein has accumulated in the brain.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that immune cells that typically protect neurons from damage may be the link between such early and late brain changes in Alzheimer’s disease. Breaking that link could lead to new approaches to delay or prevent the disease.

Centene Corp. and the School of Medicine announced a partnership April 8 to transform and accelerate research into treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, breast cancer, diabetes and obesity. As part of the partnership, Centene will fund up to $100 million over 10 years in research at the university.

A study in mice and people from the School of Medicine shows that sleep deprivation causes tau levels to rise and tau tangles to spread through the brain, accelerating Alzheimer’s brain damage.

A simple blood test reliably detects signs of brain damage in people on the path to developing Alzheimer’s disease – even before they show signs of confusion and memory loss, according to a new study from the School of Medicine and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Monique Williams, AB ’95, MD ’99, MSCI ’08, is a physician with expertise in geriatric medicine and an advocate for including underrepresented populations in medical studies.

A new study from the School of Medicine has found that decreased deep sleep is associated with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.