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Gut-brain relationship in dementia and Alzheimer's disease: Impact on stress and immunity

3 weeks 4 days ago
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is increasingly recognized as a condition shaped not only by central nervous system pathology but also by complex, bidirectional interactions between the gut, brain, and immune system. This review synthesizes emerging evidence on gut-brain-immune dysregulation in AD, with particular attention to how chronic stress, microbial imbalance, and neuroimmune signaling converge to influence disease risk and progression. We move beyond traditional microbiome-focused perspectives...
Upasana Mukherjee

White matter hyperintensities contribute to early cortical thinning in addition to tau in aging

3 weeks 4 days ago
White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are associated with cortical thinning in distant brain regions. However, it is currently unclear how WMH affect neurodegeneration in early Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we investigated associations between WMH and cortical thickness in temporal regions involved in early AD (AD cortical signature), while correcting for regional amyloid and tau accumulation assessed by PET. We performed cross-sectional (n = 551), and longitudinal (n = 125) analyses in older...
Riccardo Leone

Opantimirs: A class of antagonizing microRNAs that upregulate Opa1 and improve mitochondrial and disuse myopathies

3 weeks 4 days ago
Alterations in mitochondrial ultrastructure and reduced levels of the crista-shaping protein Opa1 are key features of mitochondrial myopathies and aging. We identify and characterize a biological therapy that improves mitochondrial and disuse myopathy models by boosting Opa1 levels. In silico analysis identifies microRNAs (miRNAs) 128-3p and 148/152-3p family as conserved modulators of OPA1 transcription and elevated in various muscle disorders. These miRNAs target the 3' UTR of murine and human...
Andre Djalalvandi

Psychological predictors of gerascophobia among middle-aged and older adults: the role of health anxiety and body image satisfaction

3 weeks 4 days ago
Gerascophobia-the excessive fear of aging-is linked to health anxiety and negative body perceptions. While health anxiety may heighten aging-related fears, body image satisfaction may buffer this effect. However, their interplay remains underexplored, particularly among community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults not receiving psychological care. This study aims to examine the predictive role of health anxiety on gerascophobia and assess whether body image satisfaction moderates this...
Samira Ahmed Alsenany

No effect of additional education on long-term brain structure, a preregistered natural experiment in thousands of individuals

3 weeks 4 days ago
Education is related to a wide variety of beneficial health, behavioral, and societal outcomes. However, whether education causes long-term structural changes in the brain remains unclear. A pressing challenge is that individuals self-select into continued education, thereby introducing a wide variety of environmental and genetic confounders. Fortunately, natural experiments allow us to isolate the causal impact of increased education from individual (and societal) characteristics. Here, we...
Nicholas Judd

Taurine ameliorates viral encephalitis by restoring PRKN-mediated mitophagy

3 weeks 5 days ago
Mitophagy is a selective type of autophagy that removes damaged mitochondria to maintain mitochondrial homeostasis and regulate the antiviral immune response. Despite increasing evidence that herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection causes mitochondrial damage, the regulatory mechanisms governing mitochondrial homeostasis and its biological implications in the context of HSV-1 infection and viral encephalitis remain unclear. In our recent work, we find that HSV-1 infection causes the...
Xiaowei Song

Repeated brain MRI utility in identifying neurodegenerative disorders at the pre-dementia stage

3 weeks 5 days ago
Despite the increasing availability of biomarkers in clinical settings, diagnosing individuals with subtle cognitive/behavioral symptoms and normal structural brain imaging remains challenging. In real-world settings, it is not feasible to subject all such patients to costly and invasive second-level assessments, and there are no clear guidelines for identifying those who should undergo these procedures beyond clinical follow-up and structural imaging. The present study explores the potential of...
Chiara Carbone