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James Semple of Glaxo-SmithKline
Pharmaceuticals and Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge has played
a key role in a new study which advances research into Alzheimer’s
disease.
UCLA and University of Queensland (Australia)
neuroscientists, using a powerful new imaging analysis technique,
have created the first 3D video maps showing how Alzheimer’s
systematically engulfs the brains of living patients.
The
dramatic time-lapse videos show the sequential destruction of brain
areas that control memory function, then emotion and inhibition, and
finally sensation.
They also show how the disease spares
small brain regions that control vision and other functions that
remain intact in Alzheimer’s patients.
The analysis
technique, which detects very fine changes in magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) brain scans, offers doctors and researchers a powerful
new tool that could speed diagnosis and intervention, and
development of new therapies.
Currently, the impact of
therapy with cholinergic drugs and antioxidants is typically
assessed only with cognitive tests; the physical spread of the
disease can be evaluated only in autopsy studies.
The
imaging will allow doctors and researchers to pinpoint where and how
fast the disease is spreading. Its effectiveness was demonstrated in
the study in which James Semple participated.
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Glaxo-SmithKline
Pharmaceuticals |
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