The brains of beached bottlenose dolphins in Indian River Lagoon, Florida, show the presence of both cyanobacterial toxins and Alzheimer's-like neuropathology. The concentration of the cyanobacterial toxin 2,4-DAB is 2,900 times greater during cyanobacterial bloom season than other times of the year. During blooms, 536 different genes associated with Alzheimer's are expressed in the dolphin brains. Since dolphins are sentinels for marine toxic exposures, there may be implications of this discovery for human health.

The Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC), a global initiative to prevent Alzheimer’s disease and promote brain health, today announced a collaboration with the Science for Africa Foundation (SFA Foundation) to advance brain health innovation across the African continent.

Monitoring amyloid plaques in animal models is essential for testing Alzheimer’s therapies, but most methods rely on post-mortem analysis. Researchers from the University of Strathclyde and the Italian Institute of Technology have developed a fiber photometry technique that tracks amyloid plaque signals in the brains of freely moving Alzheimer’s model mice. By combining a plaque-binding fluorescent dye with flat and tapered optical fibers, the team demonstrated that in vivo fluorescence signals correlate with post-mortem histology and can distinguish diseased from healthy animals. The tapered fiber approach enabled depth-resolved monitoring across brain regions during natural behavior, offering a minimally invasive way to study disease progression and therapeutic effects in real time.

Angel Martí, chair of Rice University’s Department of Chemistry, is leading efforts to highlight chemistry’s role in advancing brain health research. With Texas voters set to decide on Proposition 14 in November, which would create the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT), Martí says now is the right time to underscore how fundamental science paves the way for breakthroughs in treating Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and related disorders.

A team of scientists from TTUHSC’s Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences has published new evidence suggesting that the blood-brain barrier (BBB) remains largely intact in a commonly used mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. The discovery challenges long-standing assumptions that Alzheimer’s disease causes the BBB to “leak,” potentially reshaping how researchers think about drug delivery for the disease. Fluids and Barriers of the CNS published the study July 23.