Publications by authors named "Ana-Maria Lacosta"
Many factors may converge in healthy aging in the oldest old, but their association and predictive power on healthy or functionally impaired aging has yet to be demonstrated. By detecting healthy aging and in turn, poor aging, we could take action to prevent chronic diseases associated with age. We conducted a pilot study comparing results of a set of markers (peripheral blood mononuclear cell or PBMC telomere length, circulating Aβ peptides, anti-Aβ antibodies, and ApoE status) previously associated with poor aging or cognitive deterioration, and their combinations, in a cohort of "neurologically healthy" (both motor and cognitive) nonagenarians ( = 20) and functionally impaired, institutionalized nonagenarians ( = 38) recruited between 2014 and 2015.
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- A new active vaccine, ABvac40, targeting the amyloid-β peptide was developed for Alzheimer's disease and tested in a phase I clinical trial for safety and tolerability.
- The trial involved 24 patients with mild to moderate AD, who were randomly assigned to receive either the vaccine or a placebo, with a focus on documenting any adverse effects and measuring immune response.
- Initial results showed that both groups experienced similar rates of adverse events, suggesting that the vaccine was generally safe and tolerated, but no significant differences were found in the occurrence of specific imaging abnormalities related to amyloid treatment.
The two pathognomonic lesions in the brain of AD patients are senile plaques and intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles (NFT). Previous studies have demonstrated that amyloid-β (Aβ) is a component of both senile plaques and NFTs, and have showed that intracellular accumulation of Aβ is toxic for cells and precedes the appearance of extracellular amyloid deposits. Here we report that there are numerous intraneuronal NFT and extraneuronal NFT immunoreactive for Aβx-40 in which there is no co-localization with tau staining suggesting the existence of two different neurodegenerating populations associated with the intracellular accumulation of either tau protein or Aβx-40 in AD.
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- The research found that a specific fragment of amyloid-beta, Aβ1-17 (Aβ17), is prevalent in cerebrospinal fluid and may aid in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease.
- An ELISA test was created to measure Aβ17 levels in plasma, categorized into different recovery methods, and evaluated in patients with varying cognitive states.
- Results indicated that certain Aβ17 levels could significantly differentiate between healthy controls and Alzheimer's or mild cognitive impairment patients, suggesting Aβ17 could improve blood-based screening for Alzheimer's risk.