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People who followed a Mediterranean-style diet closely had less amyloid and tau pathology, increased brain volume in regions vulnerable to Alzheimer s disease, and better memory performance, a cross-sectional analysis in Germany showed.
Higher adherence to a Mediterranean type of diet was linked to larger mediotemporal gray matter volume, better memory scores, and lower pathological levels of biomarkers for amyloid plaques and tau tangles, reported Tommaso Ballarini, PhD, of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Bonn, and co-authors.
Mediotemporal volume mediated the association between diet and memory. Diet adherence favorably moderated links between amyloid beta (Aβ42/40 ratio), phosphorylated tau 181 (p-tau181), and mediotemporal atrophy, they wrote in
Six dementia patients received a controversial gene therapy injection in Mexico City, according to a biotech CEO.
(STAT)
(Nature)
Cladribine (Mavenclad) did not impair humoral response to COVID-19 vaccination in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), but ocrelizumab (Ocrevus) and fingolimod (Gilenya) did, a small study in Israel showed.
(Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders)
Median SARS-CoV-2 antibody response was lower for MS patients on ocrelizumab than it was for other MS patients with COVID-19. (JAMA Neurology)
An investigational Alzheimer s treatment known as BPN14770, a phosphodiesterase-4D inhibitor, boosted cognition in a phase II trial of people with fragile X syndrome.
(Nature Medicine)
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Cannabis has become an integral part of pain medicine despite a lack of clear evidence to support its use, an expert said at the 2021 virtual American Academy of Pain Medicine meeting. Some patients with chronic pain clearly benefit from medical cannabis, said Elon Eisenberg, MD, of Rambam Health Care and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, in a special session about cannabis.
The endo-cannabinoid system is involved in pain control at the peripheral, spinal, and supra-spinal levels, Eisenberg observed. Cannabinoid receptor activity inhibits the ascending nociceptive transmission, activates the inhibitory descending pathways, and modifies the emotional component of pain which is important by itself.
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New cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. fell 16% last week and deaths were at their lowest since October, a
Reuters analysis showed.
(NBC News)
Meanwhile, 15 Oregon counties, including parts of Portland, will move to extreme risk COVID-19 restrictions starting Friday, the governor s office said. (KATU-TV)
(9News-TV)
As of Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. EDT, the unofficial U.S. COVID-19 toll reached 32,176,908 cases and 573,383 deaths, increases of 51,359 and 687, respectively, since this time a day ago.
Updated CDC data show 54% of all adults have had at least their first COVID-19 shot and 37% are fully vaccinated. For people 65 and older, those numbers are 82% and 68%.
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Psychological interventions can help reduce risk of persistent pain after surgery but timing is critical, a pain expert said at the virtual 2021 American Academy of Pain Medicine annual meeting. We can look at chronic pain as occurring in a very linear process, said Ravi Prasad, PhD, of University of California Davis, in a meeting session about multimodal ways to prevent chronic post-surgical pain. By definition, pain starts off as something acute, Prasad noted. The acute phase includes assessments and treatment to try to eliminate pain quickly. When the pain condition fails to respond to some of these initial treatments, it starts to enter the subacute category, Prasad said. The patient is still engaged in different medical workups to try to identify the cause of the pain and still participating in treatments, but they haven t responded to the interventions in the manner expected, meaning the pain continues to persist. This is usually about 3 to 6 mon