Long-standing hormone treatment for donated hearts found to be ineffective (Links to an external site)

Washington University physician Raj Dhar, MD, (front) and Gary Marklin, MD, the chief medical officer at Mid-America Transplant in St. Louis, care for a deceased organ donor. Dhar and Marklin led a study that showed that the long-standing practice of treating deceased organ donors with thyroid hormone does not help preserve heart function, may cause harm and should be discontinued.

Doctors managing deceased organ donors routinely treat the donors’ bodies with thyroid hormones in a bid to preserve heart function and increase the quantity and quality of hearts and other organs available for transplantation. However, according to a recent clinical trial led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Mid-America […]

Tuberous Sclerosis Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis expands with addition of Adult TSC Director Nascimento

Fábio A. Nascimento, MD, and Patty Schaefer examine a patient

The Washington University Tuberous Sclerosis Center is recognized by the Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Alliance as one of only 13 TSC Centers of Excellence across the globe and the only in Missouri. Its multispecialty team is equipped to provide the highest level of comprehensive, medical care for children and adults with tuberous sclerosis complex while conducting cutting-edge […]

How do toxic proteins accumulate in Alzheimer’s and other diseases? (Links to an external site)

Stress granules (red) fill stem cell-derived neurons (nuclei shown in blue) from a person with a mutation in the tau gene. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have figured out the connection between tau mutations and stress granules, a discovery which could potentially lead to new approaches to treating a group of neurodegenerative diseases known as tauopathies.

Under normal circumstances, tau protein is part of the brain’s infrastructure, important for stabilizing neurons into their proper shapes. But sometimes tau gets knotted up into tangles and turns toxic, injuring brain tissue and causing tauopathies, a group of brain diseases characterized by problems with learning, memory and movement. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common […]

Blood-based biomarkers for treatment monitoring in Alzheimer’s disease (Links to an external site)

Suzanne Schindler

Suzanne Schindler, MD, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, discusses the promise of blood-based biomarkers for treatment monitoring. Data has been presented on plasma phosphorylated-tau 217 (p-tau217) as a method to monitor the effects of lecanemab and donanemab. This research is investigating if medication discontinuation is feasible if p-tau217 […]

Cognitive function in Down syndrome-associated Alzheimer’s focus of grant (Links to an external site)

Neurologist Beau Ances, MD, PhD, talks with his patient, Adam Kloppenberg, who has Down syndrome, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. People with Down syndrome are at very high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Ances is involved in a project led by Jason Hassenstab, PhD, an associate professor of neurology, to develop tools to measure cognitive function in people with Down syndrome-associated Alzheimer’s disease.

Nearly every person with Down syndrome eventually develops Alzheimer’s disease, yet people with the syndrome routinely are excluded from Alzheimer’s clinical trials, as the cognitive assessment tools designed for the general population often are inappropriate for people with developmental disabilities. Consequently, nobody knows whether the new Alzheimer’s therapeutics hitting the market will work for people […]

Study defines disparities in memory care (Links to an external site)

Members of minoritized racial or ethnic groups and people who live in less affluent neighborhoods are less likely than others to receive specialized care for dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates.

Patients who live in less affluent neighborhoods and those from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups are less likely than others to receive specialized care for dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates. Further, the research shows that Black people are more likely than white people […]

Prioritizing diversity in Alzheimer’s disease biomarker studies (Links to an external site)

Suzanne Schindler, MD, PhD, on VJ Dementia

Suzanne Schindler, MD, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, gives insight into the need for more diverse cohorts to improve our understanding of the impact of sex, age, and race on biomarker levels and trajectories in Alzheimer’s disease. While efforts to study racial and ethnic minority populations have improved, […]

Tau-based biomarker tracks Alzheimer’s progression (Links to an external site)

Kanta Horie, PhD, works with a mass spectrometer that he uses to measure protein levels in cerebrospinal fluid samples. Horie and colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Lund University in Sweden have discovered that a form of the protein tau in the cerebrospinal fluid known as MTBR-tau243 can be used to track the progression of Alzheimer's disease and could speed drug development.

Two pathologies drive the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Early on, amyloid beta plaques lead the way, but around the time cognitive symptoms arise, tau tangles take over as the driving force and cognition steadily declines. Tracking the course of the disease in individual patients has been challenging because there’s been no easy way to measure […]

There’s Now a Rapid, Accurate COVID-19 Air Detector (Links to an external site)

fStop—Getty Images

The COVID-19 pandemic will forever be associated with unprecedented lockdowns and inconveniences such as wearing masks in public. And that’s largely because health experts had no idea exactly where the SARS-CoV-2 virus was lurking, and how risky crowded settings such as workplaces, classrooms, and public transportation were.