New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine is revealing why traumatic brain injury increases the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease—and the discovery is pointing to a potential strategy to prevent the progressive brain disorder.

John Lukens, director of UVA’s Harrison Family Translational Research Center in Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases—housed within the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology—and his team discovered that even one mild traumatic brain injury can set off damaging changes, paving the way for the development of Alzheimer’s.

“Our findings indicate that fixing brain drainage following head trauma can provide a much-needed strategy to limit the development of Alzheimer’s disease later in life,” said Lukens, part of UVA’s Department of Neuroscience and its Center for Brain Immunology and Glia, and author on the new study published in Cell Reports.

Lung cancer cells metastasizing to the brain can form real electrical synapses with neurons, not just hijack brain space — a discovery that may open new therapeutic targets. Researchers found that neuronal activity actually spurs tumor growth and that drugs reducing neuron signaling could slow cancer proliferation.

Two teams discover how small cell lung cancer hijacks neural pathways to proliferate faster, especially to the brain. Common neuro drugs could be the answer.

Scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz have discovered that while brain neuron changes, including cell loss, may begin in early life, a drug long-approved for other conditions might be repurposed to slow this damage, offering new hope for those with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other cognition issues.

The study was published today in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.

“This drug improved one measure of cognition and reduced a blood measure of neuron death in people with AD in a relatively short period of time in its first clinical trial,” said the study’s senior author Professor Huntington Potter, Ph.D., director of the University of Colorado Alzheimer’s and Cognition Center at CU Anschutz.

A possible new treatment for impaired brain blood flow and related dementias is on the horizon. Research by scientists at the University of Vermont Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine provides novel insights into the mechanisms that regulate brain blood flow and highlights a potential therapeutic strategy to correct vascular dysfunction.

Their preclinical findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that adding a missing phospholipid back into a person’s circulatory system could restore normal brain blood flow and reduce symptoms of dementia.

“This discovery is a huge step forward in our efforts to prevent dementia and neurovascular diseases,” says principal investigator Osama Harraz, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology at Larner College of Medicine.