DNA methylation of the promoter region at the CREB1 binding site is a mechanism for the epigenetic regulation of brain-specific PKMζ.

Protein kinase M zeta, PKMζ, is a brain enriched kinase with a well characterized role in Long-Term Potentiation (LTP), the activity-dependent strengthening of synapses involved in long-term memory formation. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that maintain the tissue specificity of this kinase. Here, we characterized the epigenetic factors, mainly DNA methylation, regulating PKMζ expression in the human brain.

Association between health literacy and glycemic control in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes and modifying effect of social support.

Objective: To investigate the association between inadequate functional health literacy, considering the Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Portuguese-speaking Adults, and glycemic control in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes, and to examine this association in low social support settings, according to Medical Outcomes Study .

Methods: Cross-sectional study conducted at the diabetes referral center of a university hospital. Participants were recruited among type 2 diabetes patients aged 60 years or older, between May 2013 and November 2014.

Initial findings of striatum tripartite model in OCD brain samples based on transcriptome analysis.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by obsessions and/or compulsions. Different striatal subregions belonging to the cortico-striato-thalamic circuitry (CSTC) play an important role in the pathophysiology of OCD. The transcriptomes of 3 separate striatal areas (putamen (PT), caudate nucleus (CN) and accumbens nucleus (NAC)) from postmortem brain tissue were compared between 6 OCD and 8 control cases.

Is Olfactory Epithelium Biopsy Useful for Confirming Alzheimer's Disease?

Objectives: The clinical symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are preceded by a long asymptomatic period associated with "silent" deposition of aberrant paired helical filament (PHF)-tau and amyloid-beta proteins in brain tissue. Similar depositions have been reported within the olfactory epithelium (OE), a tissue that can be biopsied in vivo. The degree to which such biopsies are useful in identifying AD is controversial.

APOE genotypes as a risk factor for age-dependent accumulation of cerebrovascular disease in older adults.

Introduction: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) is a susceptibility gene for late-onset Alzheimer's disease neuropathology; less is known about the relationship between APOE and cerebrovascular disease (CVD) neuropathology.

Methods: We investigated associations of APOE status with arteriolosclerosis, macroinfarcts and microinfarcts, and atherosclerosis in 1383 adults (65.9-108.

Layer-specific reduced neuronal density in the orbitofrontal cortex of older adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Neurobiological models have provided consistent evidence of the involvement of cortical-subcortical circuitry in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), involved in motivation and emotional responses, is an important regulatory node within this circuitry. However, OFC abnormalities at the cellular level have so far not been studied.

Diabetes is Not Associated with Alzheimer's Disease Neuropathology.

Background: Previous evidence linking diabetes to Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathology is mixed and scant data are available from low- and middle-income countries.

Objective: To investigate the association between diabetes and AD neuropathology in a large autopsy study of older Brazilian adults.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, diabetes was defined by diagnosis during life or use of antidiabetic medication.

Applicability of the Spoken Knowledge in Low Literacy Patients with Diabetes in Brazilian elderly.

Objective: To translate, adapt and evaluate the properties of a Brazilian Portuguese version of the Spoken Knowledge in Low Literacy Patients with Diabetes, which is a questionnaire that evaluate diabetes knowledge.

Methods: A cross-sectional study with type 2 diabetes patients aged ≥60 years, seen at a public healthcare organization in the city of Sao Paulo (SP). After the development of the Portuguese version, we evaluated the psychometrics properties and the association with sociodemographic and clinical variables.

Factors associated with brain volume in major depression in older adults without dementia: results from a large autopsy study.

Objective: We examined brain volume and atrophy in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) without dementia that were referred to a large autopsy service. We also examined potential risk factors for brain atrophy, including demographics and clinical variables.

Methods: In this study, 1373 participants (787 male) aged 50 years or older who died from natural causes were included.

Association between adiposity and systemic atherosclerosis: a protocol of a cross-sectional autopsy study.

Introduction: Adiposity has been associated with atherosclerosis in clinical studies. However, few autopsy studies have investigated this association, and they had only examined the coronary artery disease. Moreover, most studies had small sample sizes and were limited to middle-aged or young adults.

Validity of the Katz Index to assess activities of daily living by informants in neuropathological studies.

Objective: To analyze the evidences of construct validity of the Katz Index for the retrospective assessment of activities of daily living (ADL) by informants, to assist neuropathological studies in the elderly.

Method: A cross-sectional study analyzed the functional ability of ADL measure by the Katz Index, of 650 cases randomly selected from the Brazilian Brain Bank of the Ageing Brain Study Group (BBBABSG) database. Sample was divided in two subsamples for the analysis (N=325, each) and then stratified according to cognitive decline assessed by the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR).

Argyrophilic Grain Disease: Demographics, Clinical, and Neuropathological Features From a Large Autopsy Study.

Argyrophilic grain disease (AGD) is a frequent late-onset, 4-repeat tauopathy reported in Caucasians with high educational attainment. Little is known about AGD in non-Caucasians or in those with low educational attainment. We describe AGD demographics, clinical, and neuropathological features in a multiethnic cohort of 983 subjects ≥50 years of age from São Paulo, Brazil.

Higher Prevalence of TDP-43 Proteinopathy in Cognitively Normal Asians: A Clinicopathological Study on a Multiethnic Sample.

Transactive response DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43) proteinopathy is the major hallmark of frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It is also present in a subset of Alzheimer's disease cases. Recently, few reports showed TDP-43 changes in cognitively normal elderly.

Olfaction in neurologic and neurodegenerative diseases: a literature review.

Introduction Loss of smell is involved in various neurologic and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease. However, the olfactory test is usually neglected by physicians at large. Objective The aim of this study was to review the current literature about the relationship between olfactory dysfunction and neurologic and neurodegenerative diseases.

Factors associated with morphometric brain changes in cognitively normal aging.

Objective: Cognitive impairment is associated with reductions in brain weight and volume. The factors related to morphometric brain changes in cognitively normal aging remain unknown. We aimed to identify which clinical factors are associated with morphometric brain changes in cognitively normal aging.

Complex network-driven view of genomic mechanisms underlying Parkinson's disease: analyses in dorsal motor vagal nucleus, locus coeruleus, and substantia nigra.

Parkinson's disease (PD)—classically characterized by severe loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta—has a caudal-rostral progression, beginning in the dorsal motor vagal nucleus and, in a less extent, in the olfactory system, progressing to the midbrain and eventually to the basal forebrain and the neocortex. About 90% of the cases are idiopathic. To study the molecular mechanisms involved in idiopathic PD we conducted a comparative study of transcriptional interaction networks in the dorsal motor vagal nucleus (VA), locus coeruleus (LC), and substantia nigra (SN) of idiopathic PD in Braak stages 4-5 (PD) and disease-free controls (CT) using postmortem samples.

Vascular risk as a predictor of cognitive decline in a cohort of elderly patients with mild to moderate dementia.

Background/aims: The purpose of our study was to evaluate vascular risk factors and other clinical variables as predictors of cognitive and functional decline in elderly patients with mild to moderate dementia.

Methods: The clinical characteristics of 82 elderly patients (mean age 79.0 ± 5.

Prevalence of dementia subtypes in a developing country: a clinicopathological study.

Objectives: To assess the distribution of dementia subtypes in Brazil using a population-based clinicopathological study.

Method: Brains from deceased individuals aged ≥50 years old were collected after the next of kin signed an informed consent form and provided information through standardized questionnaires. Post-mortem clinical diagnoses were established in consensus meetings, and only cases with moderate or severe dementia or without cognitive impairment were included in the analysis.

Very low levels of education and cognitive reserve: a clinicopathologic study.

Objective: We conducted a clinicopathologic study in a large population with very low levels of education to determine whether very few years of education could contribute to cognitive reserve and modify the relation of neuropathologic indices to dementia.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we included 675 individuals 50 years of age or older from the Brazilian Aging Brain Study Group. Cognitive abilities were evaluated through a structured interview with an informant at the time of autopsy, including the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale.

Estimating premorbid cognitive abilities in low-educated populations.

Objective: To develop an informant-based instrument that would provide a valid estimate of premorbid cognitive abilities in low-educated populations.

Methods: A questionnaire was drafted by focusing on the premorbid period with a 10-year time frame. The initial pool of items was submitted to classical test theory and a factorial analysis.

Medical adverse events in elderly hospitalized patients: a prospective study.

Objectives: To determine the frequency of medical adverse events in elderly patients admitted to an acute care geriatric unit, the predictive factors of occurrence, and the correlation between adverse events and hospital mortality rates.

Methods: This prospective study included 171 admissions of patients aged 60 years and older in the acute care geriatric unit in a teaching hospital in Brazil between 2007 and 2008. The following variables were assessed at admission: the patient age, gender, number of prescription drugs, geriatric syndromes (e.

Depression and cardiovascular risk factors: evidence from a large postmortem sample.

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the association of depression with cardiovascular risk factors and diseases (CVRFD) in a large population-based sample.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1012 deceased individuals greater than 50 years of age from a general autopsy service located in São Paulo, Brazil. Demographics, socioeconomic profile, and CVRFD information were collected by caregivers from the deceased individuals from the Brain Bank of the Brazilian Aging Brain Study Group.

Morphometric brain changes during aging: Results from a Brazilian necropsy sample.

Unlabelled: The present study aimed to establish the morphometric brain changes during aging in a necropsy series from Brazil and determine whether sexual dimorphisms interfere in these changes.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the São Paulo Autopsy Service in Brazil where, after informed consent, data was gathered from next of kin interview with reference to clinical status prior to death. Brain weight, volume and density measurements were taken and then adjusted for head circumference.

Adverse drug events leading to emergency department visits in elderly: the role of inappropriate prescription.

Objective: Adverse drug reactions are more incident among the elderly and are frequently associated to inappropriate prescription for this group. The objective of the current study was to investigate the incidence and the characteristics of emergency department visits, related to inappropriate prescription, at the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein.

Methods: Patients aged 60 years or older, admitted to the emergency department at Unidade Avançada Ibirapuera of Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, were included in the study.