Scientific Link to Autism Identified

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GENES that increase the risk of Alzheimer’s and a blood protein that speeds up cognitive decline are radically changing our view of the devastating illness. Reported this week, both findings suggest new causes for Alzheimer’s, boosting prospects for its treatment and prevention.

“What we’ve found is absolutely fascinating, and will change the course of research into Alzheimer’s,” says Julie Williams of Cardiff University, UK, who led one of two genetics studies. She says the findings “show us the prime pathways into the disease”.

For the past 20 years, researchers have been trying to treat Alzheimer’s by blocking the accumulation of waxy plaques in the brain, with little success (see “Plaque drug trials fail”). While the exact role of these plaques is still unclear, the new studies suggest that disruptions of the immune system, the way cells metabolise fat, and wear and tear on the circulatory system may be as much to blame for Alzheimer’s, or perhaps even the root cause. Read the full story

Centenarian:

A centenarian is a person who has attained the age of 100 years or more. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only achieved by about one in a thousand centenarians. Even rarer yet is a person who has lived to 115 years old – only 1 in 100,000 centenarians make it to this age. Read the full story