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Originally published by Rice University , at https://medicalxpress.com , on April 15, 2025   Schematic diagram of RibbonFold. Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2501321122 A novel artificial intelligence (AI) tool has revealed how disease-linked proteins misfold into harmful structures, a key advance in understanding neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The study , led by Mingchen Chen of the Changping Laboratory and Rice University's Peter Wolynes , i ntroduces RibbonFold , a new computational method capable of predicting the structures of amyloids —long, twisted fibers that accumulate in the brains of patients suffering from neurological decline . The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Read more  

Originally written by Sahana Sitaraman, PhD ,   at The Sicentist, on March 31, 2025 Current biomarkers of cognitive impairment in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease perform poorly. Now, a stronger predictor emerges.   Using data from more than 3000 people, researchers have described a new and more robust protein biomarker to predict cognitive impairment in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. ©istock,  wildpixel In 1906, a 50-year-old woman in Germany died of a mysterious illness. Before her death, she presented with a combination of symptoms that stumped doctors—progressive memory loss, paranoia, confusion, and aggression. A closer look into her brain post-mortem revealed abnormal clumps and tangled bundles of fibers. This was the first documented case of Alzheimer’s disease , described in detail by Alois Alzheimer, a clinical psychiatrist and neuroanatomist. 1 His characterization of the disease pathology is still used for diagnosis of this neurodegenerative dis...

Scientists identify a signaling pathway that triggers muscle fatigue in response to nervous system inflammation or infections like SARS-CoV-2. Originally published by Sneha Khedkar at The Scientist, on Jan 21, 2025 ABOVE: Nervous system infection or inflammation trigger brain-muscle signaling pathways that cause muscle fatigue. ©iStock,  Chinnapong In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic escalated, many universities shut down or reduced the capacities of research laboratorie s in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus. At Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis , developmental biologist Aaron Johnson was permitted one person in his lab to keep things running. Shuo Yang , then a postdoctoral researcher working on muscle developmental biology, stepped up. An immunologist by training, Yang, now at Fudan University, was curious to learn more about the virus that was wreaking havoc in the world. Since h is model organism—the fruit fly—was not naturally susce...

Originally published at MedicalXpress by Gladstone Institutes , on November 26, 2024 Aged App NL-G-F mice show robust AD-related pathology and mild impairments in the Morris water maze. Credit: Cell Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114870 Subtle signs of Alzheimer's disease can emerge decades before a diagnosis —often in the form of irregular behaviors that reflect very early stages of brain dysfunction . But until now, identifying and measuring these slight behavioral changes in a scientific way hasn't been feasibl e, not even when studying Alzheimer's in mice. In a study published in Cell Reports , a team of scientists at Gladstone Institutes used a new video-based machine learning tool to pinpoint otherwise-undetectable signs of early disease in mice that were engineered to mimic key aspects of Alzheimer's. Their work sheds light on a new strategy for identifying neurological disease earlier than currently possible and tracking how it develo...