Diagnostic accuracy of a global cognitive screen for Māori and non-Māori octogenarians.

Introduction: We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MS) in predicting dementia and cognitive impairment in Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand) and non-Māori octogenarians.

Methods: A subsample of participants from were recruited to determine the 3MS diagnostic accuracy compared with the reference standard.

Results: Seventy-three participants (44% Māori) completed the 3MS and reference standard assessments.

Cellular composition of human glial cultures from adult biopsy brain tissue.

Microglia and astrocytes play vital roles in normal human brain function and in neurological disorders. To study their physiological and pathological roles it is desirable to establish in vitro systems that are derived from the adult human brain. Although several groups have successfully cultured cells from the human brain, the composition of these cultures remains controversial.

TBP, a polyglutamine tract containing protein, accumulates in Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterised by extra cellular beta-amyloid (betaA) deposition, Tau-containing neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and progressive cortical atrophy. Abnormal protein accumulation is also a common feature of other late onset neurodegenerative diseases, including the heritable polyglutamine (polyQ) disorders such as Huntington disease (HD) and the spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs). One of this family of disorders, SCA17, is caused by an expansion of a polymorphic polyQ repeat in TATA binding protein (TBP), an essential transcription factor.