Publications by authors named "Catarina R de Oliveira"

Importance: Depressive symptoms are associated with cognitive decline in older individuals. Uncertainty about underlying mechanisms hampers diagnostic and therapeutic efforts. This large-scale study aimed to elucidate the association between depressive symptoms and amyloid pathology.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the prevalence of amyloid aggregation, a key feature of Alzheimer's disease, in individuals with varying cognitive statuses, including those with normal cognition and who have clinical AD dementia.
  • It analyzes how factors like age, sex, educational background, and the method of detecting amyloid (CSF or PET scans) influence the prevalence estimates.
  • Data were collected from 85 study cohorts between 2013 and 2020, using a systematic approach to categorize amyloid measurements as normal or abnormal.
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Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers may support the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We studied if the diagnostic power of AD CSF biomarker concentrations, i.e.

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Introduction: Core cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers - Aβ42, Tau, and phosphorylated Tau (pTau) - have been recently incorporated in the revised criteria for Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, their widespread clinical application lacks standardization. Pre-analytical sample handling and storage play an important role in the reliable measurement of these biomarkers across laboratories.

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Decreased levels of alpha-synuclein (aSyn) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in Parkinson's disease and related synucleinopathies have been reported, however, not consistently in all cross-sectional studies. To test the performance of one recently released human-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the quantification of aSyn in CSF, we carried out a round robin trial with 18 participating laboratories trained in CSF ELISA analyses within the BIOMARKAPD project in the EU Joint Program - Neurodegenerative Disease Research. CSF samples (homogeneous aliquots from pools) and ELISA kits (one lot) were provided centrally and data reported back to one laboratory for data analysis.

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Article Synopsis
  • Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are interconnected health issues, with T2D affecting millions of elderly individuals and increasing the risk for AD due to shared complications.
  • Research suggests that insulin resistance, a key feature of T2D, also occurs in AD, leading to the classification of AD as "type 3 diabetes" and indicating that treatments for T2D could benefit AD patients.
  • The review focuses on the overlap in insulin signaling related to the formation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in AD, and discusses the potential of certain anti-T2D medications, especially GLP-1 receptor agonists, to protect against cognitive decline and dementia.
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In the last 5 years the resident population of Portugal has increased 2.3%, along with a progressive ageing. This study aims assessing the social dependence and frailty, as well as social and familial support needs of the elderly.

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The increase in life expectancy (LE) observed in Western societies, has resulted in a steep rise of older population. This stresses the importance of the research on aging, to better adequate health and social care organization and improve the quality of life (QoL). The aim of the EPEPP-1 (abbreviated from the Portuguese name: Estudo do Perfil de Envelhecimento da População Portuguesa) study was to characterize the socio-demographic components of the elderly Portuguese population in order to disclose factors that could play a role in the aging process and in the elderly QoL.

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Drug abuse is associated with brain dysfunction and neurodegeneration, and various recreational drugs induce apoptotic cell death. This study examined the role of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway in psychostimulant-induced neuronal dysfunction. Using primary neuronal cultures, we observed that amphetamine (IC50=1.

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Extracellular accumulation of amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptide and death of neurons in brain regions involved in learning and memory, particularly the cortex and the hippocampus, are central features of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Neuronal Ca2+ overload and apoptosis are known to occur in AD. Abeta might play a role in disrupting Ca2+ homeostasis, and this AD-associated amyloidogenic peptide has been reported to induce apoptotic death in cultured cells.

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In this study, we investigated the in vitro effect of exogenously administered insulin on the susceptibility to oxidative stress and on the accumulation of the amino acid neurotransmitters gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate in a synaptosomal fraction isolated from male Wistar rat brain cortex. Insulin (1 microM) did not affect synaptosomal lipid peroxidation induced by the oxidant pair ascorbate/Fe(2+), although under these conditions an increase in thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) levels was observed. Under control conditions, the presence of insulin did not change the uptake of [3H]GABA or [3H]glutamate.

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