Dementia Care Practice.

Aims: The Alzheimer Association (AA) has proposed new diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease (AD) based on biomarkers coinciding with β-amyloidosis onset. However, there are concerns regarding the implications of these criteria.

Methods: We reviewed several perspectives, including disease definition, public health, philosophy, therapeutic, and diagnostic.

Associations Between Blood-Based Biomarkers and Cognitive and Functional Trajectories Among Participants of the MEMENTO Cohort.

Background And Objectives: Elevated levels of Alzheimer disease (AD) blood-based biomarkers are associated with accelerated cognitive decline. However, their distinct relationships with specific cognitive and functional domains require further investigation. We aimed at estimating the associations between AD blood-based biomarkers and the trajectories of distinct cognitive and functional domains over a 5-year follow-up period.

[Support and guidance in driving for patients with (or suspected of having) Alzheimer's disease or related diseases: position paper].

New ministerial decree restricts driving motorized vehicles for patients with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. Reisberg stage 3, threshold used to contraindicate driving, appears to correspond to a mild stage of major neurocognitive impairment. A single scale gives an idea of the level of risk but does not provide a holistic assessment.

Associations among hypertension, dementia biomarkers, and cognition: The MEMENTO cohort.

Introduction: Approximately 40% of dementia cases could be delayed or prevented acting on modifiable risk factors including hypertension. However, the mechanisms underlying the hypertension-dementia association are still poorly understood.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis in 2048 patients from the MEMENTO cohort, a French multicenter clinic-based study of outpatients with either isolated cognitive complaints or mild cognitive impairment.

Evolutionary history of the p53 family DNA-binding domain: insights from an Alvinella pompejana homolog.

The extremophile Alvinella pompejana, an annelid worm living on the edge of hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean, is an excellent model system for studying factors that govern protein stability. Low intrinsic stability is a crucial factor for the susceptibility of the transcription factor p53 to inactivating mutations in human cancer. Understanding its molecular basis may facilitate the design of novel therapeutic strategies targeting mutant p53.

Pilot Study Assessing the Impact of Intrathecal Administration of Variants AAV-PHP.B and AAV-PHP.eB on Brain Transduction in Adult Rhesus Macaques.

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors are increasingly used as an effective and safe approach to deliver genetic material to the central nervous system (CNS). The AAV9-derived variants, AAV-PHP. B and AAV-PHP.

Why and how to evaluate driving abilities in patients with neurodegenerative diseases?

Many studies have shown that individuals with neurodegenerative diseases are at risk of being involved in a traffic accident. However, driving is critical for social integration and independence in daily life. The lack of consensus and a standardised assessment of driving abilities in these patients is problematic.

Diabetes Mellitus and Cognition: Pathway Analysis in the MEMENTO Cohort.

Objective: To assess the role of biomarkers of Alzheimer disease (AD), neurodegeneration, and small vessel disease (SVD) as mediators in the association between diabetes mellitus and cognition.

Methods: The study sample was derived from MEMENTO, a cohort of French adults recruited in memory clinics and screened for either isolated subjective cognitive complaints or mild cognitive impairment. Diabetes was defined based on blood glucose assessment, use of antidiabetic agent, or self-report.

[Why and how evaluating driving abilities in patients with neurodegenerative diseases?].

Many studies have shown that individuals with neurodegenerative diseases are a risk factor for being involved in a traffic accident. However, driving is critical for social integration and independence in daily life. Lack of consensus and standardized assessment of driving abilities in these patients is problematic.

Development and Validation of a Model to Identify Alzheimer's Disease and Related Syndromes in Administrative Data.

Background: Administrative data are used in the field of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Syndromes (ADRS), however their performance to identify ADRS is unknown.

Objective: i) To develop and validate a model to identify ADRS prevalent cases in French administrative data (SNDS), ii) to identify factors associated with false negatives.

Methods: Retrospective cohort of subjects ≥ 65 years, living in South-Western France, who attended a memory clinic between April and December 2013.

Distinct Hippocampal Subfields Atrophy in Older People With Vascular Brain Injuries.

Background And Purpose: Many neurological or psychiatric diseases affect the hippocampus during aging. The study of hippocampal regional vulnerability may provide important insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying these processes; however, little is known about the specific impact of vascular brain damage on hippocampal subfields atrophy.

Methods: To analyze the effect of vascular injuries independently of other pathological conditions, we studied a population-based cohort of nondemented older adults, after the exclusion of people who were diagnosed with neurodegenerative diseases during the 14-year clinical follow-up period.

Expanding the clinical spectrum of STIP1 homology and U-box containing protein 1-associated ataxia.

Background: STUB1 has been first associated with autosomal recessive (SCAR16, MIM# 615768) and later with dominant forms of ataxia (SCA48, MIM# 618093). Pathogenic variations in STUB1 are now considered a frequent cause of cerebellar ataxia.

Objective: We aimed to improve the clinical, radiological, and molecular delineation of SCAR16 and SCA48.

Clinical relevance of brain atrophy subtypes categorization in memory clinics.

Introduction: The clinical relevance of brain atrophy subtypes categorization in non-demented persons without a priori knowledge regarding their amyloid status or clinical presentation is unknown.

Methods: A total of 2083 outpatients with either subjective cognitive complaint or mild cognitive impairment at study entry were followed during 4 years (MEMENTO cohort). Atrophy subtypes were defined using baseline magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and previously described algorithms.

A Role for Taok2 in Listeria monocytogenes Vacuolar Escape.

The bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes invades host cells, ruptures the internalization vacuole, and reaches the cytosol for replication. A high-content small interfering RNA (siRNA) microscopy screen allowed us to identify epithelial cell factors involved in L. monocytogenes vacuolar rupture, including the serine/threonine kinase Taok2.

Differential annualized rates of hippocampal subfields atrophy in aging and future Alzheimer's clinical syndrome.

Several studies have investigated the differential vulnerability of hippocampal subfields during aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Results were often contradictory, mainly because these works were based on concatenations of cross-sectional measures in cohorts with different ages or stages of AD, in the absence of a longitudinal design. Here, we investigated 327 participants from a population-based cohort of nondemented older adults with a 14-year clinical follow-up.

A Spatial Decision Eye-Tracking Task in Patients with Prodromal and Mild Alzheimer's Disease.

Background/objective: Performances on spatial decision eye-tracking tasks are known to be impaired in patients with moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the clinical relevance of this deficit during earlier stages of AD remains unclear.

Methods: This study recruited patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI, prodromal AD), patients with mild AD, and age-matched controls from three French memory clinics. Participants' ability to make spatial judgments and decisions was assessed with an eye-tracking system, and cognitive performance on conventional neuropsychological tests was evaluated.

Evolution of brain atrophy subtypes during aging predicts long-term cognitive decline and future Alzheimer's clinical syndrome.

It is currently unknown whether brain atrophy subtypes defined in Alzheimer's disease are clinically relevant during aging. We investigated participants (n = 368) from a population-based cohort of nondemented older adults who received longitudinal neuropsychological assessments during 12 years. Magnetic resonance imaging scans at baseline and 4 years later were used to define participants with "hippocampal predominant atrophy," "cortical predominant atrophy," "homogenous atrophy," and "no evidence of brain subtype atrophy" based on the dynamics of hippocampal-to-cortical volume ratio evolution.

Downregulated apoptosis and autophagy after anti-Aβ immunotherapy in Alzheimer's disease.

Aβ immunization of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients in the AN1792 (Elan Pharmaceuticals) trial caused Aβ removal and a decreased density of neurons in the cerebral cortex. As preservation of neurons may be a critical determinant of outcome after Aβ immunization, we have assessed the impact of previous Aβ immunization on the expression of a range of apoptotic proteins in post-mortem human brain tissue. Cortex from 13 AD patients immunized with AN1792 (iAD) and from 27 nonimmunized AD (cAD) cases was immunolabeled for proapoptotic proteins implicated in AD pathophysiology: phosphorylated c-Jun N-terminal kinase (pJNK), activated caspase3 (a-casp3), phosphorylated GSK3β on tyrosine 216 (GSK3β ), p53 and Cdk5/p35.

Psychotropic Drug Prescription in Patients with Dementia: Nursing Home Residents Versus Patients Living at Home.

Background: Psychotropic drugs are frequently prescribed in nursing homes (NH). Nonetheless, we hoped that institutionalization decreases the number of psychotropic drug classes prescribed, because NH residents may have more psychosocial interventions than patients living at home.

Objective: The aim was to compare the type and number of psychotropic drugs prescribed in elderly NH residents with dementia with those in community-living patients.

Source Memory Rehabilitation: A Review Toward Recommendations for Setting Up a Strategy Training Aimed at the "What, Where, and When" of Episodic Retrieval.

Source memory is a core component of episodic recall as it allows for the reconstruction of contextual details characterizing the acquisition of episodic events. Unlike episodic memory, little is known about source memory rehabilitation. Our review addresses this issue by emphasizing several strategies as useful tools in source memory rehabilitation programs.

"Forget to whom you have told this proverb": directed forgetting of destination memory in Alzheimer's disease.

Destination memory is the ability to remember the receiver of transmitted information. By means of a destination memory directed forgetting task, we investigated whether participants with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) were able to suppress irrelevant information in destination memory. Twenty-six AD participants and 30 healthy elderly subjects were asked to tell 10 different proverbs to 10 different celebrities (List 1).

[Role of context recall in destination memory decline in normal aging].

Until recently, little was known about destination memory, or memory for the destination of outputted information. In the present work, this memory was evaluated in 32 older adults and 36 younger adults, who had to associate proverbs to pictures of famous people and decide, on a subsequent recognition task, whether they had previously told that proverb to that face or not. When deciding about the destination, participants had to provide contextual judgment, that is, whether each picture had been previously exposed in color or in black and white.

Unusual features of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease followed-up in a memory clinic.

Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) generally manifests itself by cognitive or rapidly progressive motor symptoms. An atypical onset or an unusual evolution may delay the diagnosis. Among patients with a confirmed diagnosis of sCJD following a post-mortem neuropathological examination at the Neuropathology Centre of Lille, France, those who had presented with atypical cognitive disorders at onset were included in the study.