RESEARCH UPDATE

REVEAL Retreat

The Risk Evaluation and Education for Alzheimer’s (REVEAL) Study is a multi-site study evaluating the psychological and be­havioral impact of genetic risk disclosure on first-degree relatives of AD patients. On September 9th and 10th, the REVEAL Study held its annual retreat in Boston. Attendees included investigators and genetic counselors from three collaborating sites – Cornell, Case Western, and Howard University – as well as three new distinguished collaborators: Dr. Deepak Bhatt (Cleveland Clinic), Dr. Jason Karlawish (University of Pennsylvania), and Dr. Ronald Petersen (Mayo Clinic), whose research on mild cognitive impair­ment is internationally recognized.

Flurizan

The Flurizan Study closed enrollment on September 1st after suc­cessfully recruiting 1684 participants nationwide; the BU ADC was one of the top enrollment sites, with 40 participants. All par­ticipants completing the 18 month trial are eligible for the open label trial and will receive the study drug and follow up.

False Memory

Alzheimer’s patients suffer from false memories - remembering things that never happened. In their study, “Episodic memory in Alzheimer’s disease: Separating response bias from discrimina­tion” (Neuropsychologia 2006 44:2222-2232), Dr. Andrew Bud­son and colleagues examined patients’ false memory tendency, by observing how often they responded, “Yes, I’ve seen that before,” on a recognition memory test. Compared to healthy older adults, the patients showed worse memory and an abnor­mally liberal response bias (responding “yes” too liberally to test items). They concluded that as AD progresses, two distinct memory abnormalities develop: worse discrimination and a more liberal response bias.

APP and Klotho News

Dr. Carmela Abraham, Professor of Biochemistry, studies the nor­mal biology of the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP), the parent molecule for the amyloid beta peptide, a toxic protein implicated in AD. Recently, Dr. Abraham was awarded an Alzheimer’s As­sociation grant to study the “Significance of APP dimerization in Alzheimer’s disease.” Dr. Abraham also investigates changes that occur during normal aging of the brain. In this project, Klotho, an anti-aging gene, was found to be decreased as a function of age. Mice lacking Klotho develop changes seen in human aging such as cognitive decline, arteriosclerosis, osteoporosis, hair loss and infertility. In contrast, mice with higher than normal Klotho levels have an increased lifespan and are more resistant to dis­ease. Dr. Abraham received an anonymous foundation grant to reveal Klotho’s role in the young brain and find ways to increase its activity in the aging brain.

• BU ADC Renewed Until 2011
• Approaches to Alzheimer's Disease
• International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease
• Research Update
• New Studies
• Actively Recruiting Studies
• ADC Happenings