Salivary biomarkers for the molecular diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies.

BackgroundDespite dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) being the second most common form of neurodegenerative dementia, more than 80% of DLB cases are initially misdiagnosed. Alpha-synuclein (a-syn) and tau species have been detected in peripheral tissues and biological fluids of DLB patients and among different biological fluids, saliva represent an easely accessible and non-invasive source for biomarker detection.ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate salivary a-syn and tau species as molecular disease biomarkers, assessing their potential in the diagnosis of DLB and in the differential diagnosis on respect to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD).

Psychometric properties of outcome measures for freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated validated tools for assessing FOG in PD, focusing on their psychometric properties, linguistic adaptations, and methodological quality.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted in MEDLINE, CINAHL, SCOPUS, and Web of Science, following PRISMA-COSMIN guidelines. Studies assessing validity, reliability, and cross-cultural adaptation of FOG-specific tools were included.

Rehabilitation Treatment for Shoulder Pain in Parkinson's Disease: A Pilot Study.

Due to rigidity, musculoskeletal pain is more common in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) compared with age-matched older adults, and the shoulder is one of the body parts that is most involved. In the literature, there is no clear standard for the treatment of shoulder pain in people with PD. This clinical trial study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of physiotherapy treatment for people with PD with painful shoulders.

Alpha rhythm and Alzheimer's disease: Has Hans Berger's dream come true?

In this "centenary" paper, an expert panel revisited Hans Berger's groundbreaking discovery of human restingstate electroencephalographic (rsEEG) alpha rhythms (8-12 Hz) in 1924, his foresight of substantial clinical applications in patients with "senile dementia," and new developments in the field, focusing on Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most prevalent cause of dementia in pathological aging. Clinical guidelines issued in 2024 by the US National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) and the European Neuroscience Societies did not endorse routine use of rsEEG biomarkers in the clinical workup of older adults with cognitive impairment. Nevertheless, the expert panel highlighted decades of research from independent workgroups and different techniques showing consistent evidence that abnormalities in rsEEG delta, theta, and alpha rhythms (< 30 Hz) observed in AD patients correlate with wellestablished AD biomarkers of neuropathology, neurodegeneration, and cognitive decline.

Proteopathic seed amplification assays in easily accessible specimens for human synucleinopathies, tauopathies, and prionopathies: A scoping review.

A hallmark event in neurodegenerative diseases is represented by the misfolding, aggregation and accumulation of proteins, leading to cellular and network dysfunction preceding the development of clinical symptoms by years. Early diagnosis represents a crucial issue in the field of neuroscience as it offers the potential to utilize this therapeutic window in the future to manage disease-modifying therapy. Seed amplification assays, including Real-Time Quaking-Induced Conversion (RT-QuIC) and Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA), have emerged in recent years as innovative techniques developed to detect minute amounts of amyloidogenic proteins.