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After scanning the brains of people with three distinct types of frontotemporal dementia, researchers have concluded that inflammation in the brain plays a key role in all of these neurodegenerative conditions. This information could help experts think of new therapeutic strategies going forward. Frontotemporal dementia is an umbrella term that refers to different types of dementia that affect the frontal or temporal lobes of the brain. Researchers are constantly striving to understand more about the mechanisms that contribute to degeneration in these and other forms of dementia. The findings of a new study from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom now indicate that neuroinflammation (inflammation of the brain) is an important contributing factor to three different types of frontotemporal dementia. This fact may imply that it also contributes to many other neurodegenerative diseases. The research, the findings of which appear in Brain: A Journal of Neurology, involved 31 people with frontotemporal dementia, 10 of whom had the behavioral variant of the condition, 11 the semantic variant, and 10 the nonfluent variant. The investigators compared the results that they obtained for these participants with those of a group of healthy control participants. In doing this, they hoped to pinpoint the characteristics specific to individuals with a form of frontotemporal dementia. The researchers used PET scans to detect the presence of inflammatory markers in the brain and then to pinpoint the presence of abnormal tau and TDP-43 aggregates. When they analyzed the brain scans, the investigators found that in all of the participants who had frontotemporal dementia, an increase in brain inflammation markers corresponded with an increase in toxic aggregates. The researchers were later able to verify this connection by carrying out postmortem studies of the brains of 12 donors who had joined the Cambridge Brain Bank. “We predicted the link between inflammation in the brain and the buildup of damaging proteins, but even we were surprised by how tightly these two problems mapped onto each other,” notes study co-author Dr. Thomas Cope. Still, the investigators emphasize that their findings have one key implication that may aid researchers focusing on neurodegenerative conditions: Brain inflammation likely plays a role in more conditions than scientists previously believed. (Credits: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/)

Researchers say that a decades-old approach could help fight SARS-CoV-2 infections. It involves collecting antibodies from the blood of people who have recovered from COVID-19. The technique is called passive antibody therapy. It was used as early as the 1930s, and its premise is simple. Medical practitioners collect blood from a person who has recovered from an infection and process it to separate the serum — the part of the blood that contains antibodies. Ultimately, the purpose is to inject a person with a current infection or who is more susceptible to a SARS-CoV-2 infection with the antibodies from someone who has just surpassed a similar infection, in order to help their immune system fight or prevent the disease. The researchers explain that with the collaboration of individuals who have recovered from COVID-19, this approach could be feasible.

Doctors could collect blood samples from convalescent volunteers, screen them for virus-neutralizing antibodies, isolate the sera from those samples, then clear them of any toxic particles and pathogens.
This would ultimately allow healthcare practitioners to provide injections of antibodies from people who have cleared the infection. These antibodies, the study authors explain, could work in different ways, such as:

• viral neutralization, in which the antibody attaches to the virus, killing it
• antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, in which the antibody stimulates a specialized immune cell to target the virus and attack its membrane, ultimately causing the virus to disintegrate
• antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis, in which the antibody stimulates a specialized immune cell to target the virus and “eat” it

While the researchers explain that using passive antibody therapy is within doctor current means — since it would only require readily available tools and technology — some challenges remain. (Credits: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/)