Rivastigmine for Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the commonest cause of dementia affecting older people. One of the therapeutic strategies aimed at ameliorating the clinical manifestations of Alzheimer's disease is to enhance cholinergic neurotransmission in relevant parts of the brain by the use of cholinesterase inhibitors to delay the breakdown of acetylcholine released into synaptic clefts. Tacrine, the first of the cholinesterase inhibitors to undergo extensive trials for this purpose, was associated with significant adverse effects including hepatotoxicity.

ABCA1 modulates CSF cholesterol levels and influences the age at onset of Alzheimer's disease.

Increased formation of the beta-amyloid peptide (Abeta) is a central event in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). High cellular cholesterol load promotes Abeta formation. The ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) mediates cholesterol efflux from cells.

Saitohin gene is not associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Background: The deposition of tau protein in neurofibrillary tangles constitutes an important feature of many neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. A polymorphic gene, saitohin (STH), nested within the tau gene (microtubule associated protein tau, MAPT), was recently identified and an association of a non-synonymous polymorphism in STH with increased risk for Alzheimer's disease was suggested.

Objective And Methods: To test the above hypothesis in a case-control association study of two independent white populations within Switzerland and Greece, comparing genotype and allele frequencies from 225 Alzheimer's disease patients and 144 healthy control subjects.

Increased brain beta-amyloid load, phosphorylated tau, and risk of Alzheimer disease associated with an intronic CYP46 polymorphism.

Background: CYP46, the gene encoding cholesterol 24-hydroxylase, plays a key role in the hydroxylation of cholesterol and thereby mediates its removal from brain.

Objective: To study the association of polymorphic sites on CYP46 with Alzheimer disease (AD) traits and with the risk of the development of AD.

Design: Alzheimer disease traits (beta-amyloid load, beta-amyloid peptides, hyperphosphorylated tau protein) were assessed in brain tissues and in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with AD and control subjects.

Greek validation of the seven-minute screening battery for Alzheimer's disease in the elderly.

The increasing prevalence ofAlzheimer's disease (AD) suggests that there is an increasing need for accurate and easily administered screening instruments. The Seven-Minute Screen is a neurocognitive screening battery consisting of four brief tests (enhanced cued recall, temporal orientation, verbal fluency, and clock drawing). We studied 55 outpatients with probable AD, 40 healthy volunteers of comparable age, sex, and education and 31 elderly patients with other neuropsychological disorders.