Three-month stability of the CogState brief battery in healthy older adults, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease: results from the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers, and Lifestyle-rate of change substudy (AIBL-ROCS).

Large prospective studies of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have sought to understand the pathological evolution of AD and factors that may influence the rate of disease progression. Estimates of rates of cognitive change are available for 12 or 24 months, but not for shorter time frames (e.g.

Biomarker candidates of neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease for the evaluation of disease-modifying therapeutics.

Reliable biomarkers that can be used for early diagnosis and tracking disease progression are the cornerstone of the development of disease-modifying treatments for Parkinson's disease (PD). The German Society of Experimental and Clinical Neurotherapeutics (GESENT) has convened a Working Group to review the current status of proposed biomarkers of neurodegeneration according to the following criteria and to develop a consensus statement on biomarker candidates for evaluation of disease-modifying therapeutics in PD. The criteria proposed are that the biomarker should be linked to fundamental features of PD neuropathology and mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in PD, should be correlated to disease progression assessed by clinical rating scales, should monitor the actual disease status, should be pre-clinically validated, and confirmed by at least two independent studies conducted by qualified investigators with the results published in peer-reviewed journals.

Memantine: a NMDA receptor antagonist that improves memory by restoration of homeostasis in the glutamatergic system--too little activation is bad, too much is even worse.

The neurotransmitter glutamate activates several classes of metabotropic receptor and three major types of ionotropic receptor--alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA), kainate and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA). The involvement of glutamate mediated neurotoxicity in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is finding increasing scientific acceptance. Central to this hypothesis is the assumption that glutamate receptors, in particular of the NMDA type, are overactivated in a tonic rather than a phasic manner.

Memantine in moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease: a meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials.

The efficacy of memantine in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been investigated in multiple randomised, placebo-controlled phase III trials. Recently, the indication label for memantine in Europe was extended to cover patients with moderate to severe AD, i.e.

Neuroprotective and symptomatological action of memantine relevant for Alzheimer's disease--a unified glutamatergic hypothesis on the mechanism of action.

The involvement of glutamate mediated neurotoxicity in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease is finding increasingly more acceptance in the scientific community. Central to this hypothesis is the assumption that in particular glutamate receptors of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) type are overactivated in a tonic rather than a phasic manner. Such continuous mild activation leads under chronic conditions to neuronal damage.