Can you elaborate on what perinatal risk factor you focusing on?

It's a birth cohort (1971-1974) of initially 1196 children who were born asphyxiated or had low weight , severe hyperbilirubinemia etc. They very thoroughly followed-up in childhood. Study plan should come out any day now in www.f1000research.com Look at our introduction page at http://about.me/plasticity (it renders funny on some browsers, but it's an experiment anyhow)

The hypothesis is, that adults who had perinatal asphyxia are more vulnerable to (all sorts of) brain disorders than those born healthy. Such an (mild) effect has been discovered in people around 20 yrs, but our cohort is already 20 yrs older, so we expect something more dramatic. Naturally, there are many many more things, other than brain pathology, to study here, but our first focus will be on asphyxia.

All suggestions are welcome!

skin fibroblast total bound cal and intra cellular ca increases in AD,

amyloid precursor protein (APP) APP 130 and APP 106-110 kd estimated by sds page and immunoblotting decreased in platelets of patients of AD and amyloid β-protein (Aβ) ...

Priyanka, thats brilliant! I had not given a thought to such a superficial thing as skin. I will have to dig deeper. (Pun intended). Very good, thanks!

Has anybody checked whether survivors of this type of trauma have elevated levels of CSF proteins or neuronal cell fragments in their circulation, maybe indicating permanent damage to the BBB?

Not that I know of. In the seventies it was still quite a hard lottery, many died, some got CP and the majority did usually relatively ok. These kids mixed in the society, perhaps doing worse than others, but still well enough to avoid big attention. I'm not aware that anybody has even thought of such a possibility of dysfunctional barrier. Before you, that is. Good hint!

Sir, i m a MD biochemistry student ,i dont know much about AD, i read about all those tests theoretically.

 NEW BIOMARKER FOR ALZHEIMER”S diagnosis http://www.news-medical.net/news/20160209/New-discovery-takes-medical-professionals-a-leap-forward-to-effectively-diagnose-Alzheimers-disease.aspx

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20160211/TAU-research-highlights-neuroprotective-potential-of-protein-protectant-drug-candidate-SKIP.aspxActivity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP), essential for brain formation, is frequently mutated in children on the autism spectrum. In older men and women, ADNP expression in the blood is correlated with cognition and further altered in Alzheimer's disease. While the three-to-one ratio of autism in boys to girls is well known, as is the greater number of female Alzheimer's patients than male Alzheimer's patients, the reasons for these phenomena -- and the theory that men and women may have different brain constitutions -- remain in hot dispute.

New research from Tel Aviv University highlights the neuroprotective potential of SKIP, a four-amino-acid peptide ADNP-replacement therapy developed at the university, and the marked difference in the nerve cell communication in male and female mice. If researchers come to understand how ADNP -- an activity-related neuroprotective protein that is a major regulatory gene -- acts differently in males and females, drugs for potential therapeutics can be optimized to treat both autism and Alzheimer's disease.

The research was led by Prof. Illana Gozes, the incumbent of the Lily and Avraham Gildor Chair for the Investigation of Growth Factors, Head of the Elton Laboratory for Molecular Neuroendocrinology at TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and a member of TAU's Adams Super Center for Brain Studies and the Sagol School of Neuroscience. It was recently published in Molecular Psychiatry.

activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP), the levels of which can be easily monitored in routine blood tests. The study also found that ADNP levels tested in the blood correlate with higher IQ in healthy older adults.A new discovery by Tel Aviv University, Technion (Rambam Medical Center), and Harvard University researchers takes the medical community a leap forward in the process of effectively screening and diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. The new study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, proposes a new biomarker for cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease: activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP), the levels of which can be easily monitored in routine blood tests. The study also found that ADNP levels tested in the blood correlate with higher IQ in healthy older adults.discovery by Tel Aviv University, Technion (Rambam Medical Center), and Harvard University researchers takes the medical community a leap forward in the process of effectively screening and diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. The new study, published in the A new discovery by Tel Aviv University, Technion (Rambam Medical Center), and Harvard University researchers takes the medical community a leap forward in the process of effectively screening and diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. The new study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, proposes a new biomarker for cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease: activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP), the levels of which can be easily monitored in routine blood tests. The study also found that ADNP levels tested in the blood correlate with higher IQ in healthy older adults.Medical professionals have to conduct a long series of tests to assess a patient's memory impairment and cognitive skills, functional abilities, and behavioral changes to accurately diagnose Alzheimer's disease. They also have to execute costly brain imagining scans and even, sometimes, invasive cerebral spinal fluid tests to rule out other diseases. The process is laborious at best -- and subjective at worst.

A new discovery by Tel Aviv University, Technion (Rambam Medical Center), and Harvard University researchers takes the medical community a leap forward in the process of effectively screening and diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. The new study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, proposes a new biomarker for cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease: activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP), the levels of which can be easily monitored in routine blood tests. The study also found that ADNP levels tested in the blood correlate with higher IQ in healthy older adults.

The research was led by Prof. Illana Gozes, the incumbent of the Lily and Avraham Gildor Chair for the Investigation of Growth Factors and former director of the Adams Super Center for Brain Studies at TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and a member of TAU's Sagol School of Neuroscience, conducted by TAU PhD student Anna Malishkevich and spearheaded by Dr. Gad Marshall, Dr. Aaron Schultz, and Prof. Reisa Sperling of Harvard University, and Prof. Judith Aharon-Peretz of Rambam Medical Center - The Technion Institute of Technology.

A step to early intervention

Significant increases in ADNP RNA levels were observed in patients ranging from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's dementia. ADNP levels tested in plasma and serum samples, as well as white blood cell RNA levels, distinguished among cognitively normal elderly, MCI, and Alzheimer's dementia participants.

For the purpose of the cross-sectional study, the investigators analyzed blood samples taken from 42 healthy adults, MCI patients, and Alzheimer's disease patients at Rambam Medical Center in Israel. After comparing the ADNP expression in the blood samples, the researchers prepared plasma samples and once again compared the protein levels.