Lewy body dementia
Resources for Patients and Caregivers
Lewy body dementia (LBD) is a disease associated with abnormal deposits of a protein called alpha-synuclein in the brain. These deposits, called Lewy bodies, affect chemicals in the brain whose changes, in turn, can lead to problems with thinking, movement, behavior, and mood.
Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: 26-Lewy Bodies Disorder/Dementia
Diagnosis:
US Patients: American actor and comedian Robin Williams committed suicide in 2014 with Parkinson’s and Lewy Bodies.
World Patients:
Sex Ratio:
Age Onset: after age 50 with life expectancy of 8 years after diagnosis
Brain Area: The SNCA gene encodes the alpha-synuclein protein which is a building-block of Lewy bodies.
Symptoms: acting out dreams, visual hallucinations, attention difficulties, slowness of movements
Progression: dementia and Parkinson’s patients may also be affected. Cause cognitive fluctuations.
Causes: clumps of protein form on brain neurons causing heart and digestive functions, low blood pressure and apathy.
Medications: several
Therapies: Cognitive training, deep-brain and transcranial direct current stimulations have been used.
Youtube Video: Lewy Body Disease
Amazon or Library Book:
A Caregiver’s Guide to Lewy Body Dementia
Click the book to link or buy from Amazon.
Support Group: lbda.org; 800-539-9767 (lewybodydementiaassociation)
Resources for Physicians, Counselors and Researchers
4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED
The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis
Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.
- Exploring brain asymmetry in early-stage Parkinson's disease through functional and structural MRIby Yujing Liu on July 26, 2024
CONCLUSIONS: Asymmetrical brain functional activity is a significant characteristic of PD, which exacerbates as the disease severity increases, resembling the dissemination of Lewy bodies across the PD neurological framework. VMHC emerges as a potent tool for characterizing disease severity in early-stage PD.
- Visual Electroencephalography Assessment in the Diagnosis and Prognosis of Cognitive Disordersby Daan M Michels on July 25, 2024
CONCLUSIONS: Visual EEG assessment has diagnostic and prognostic value in clinical practice to distinguish patients with memory complaints without underlying neurologic disorder from patients with mild cognitive impairment or dementia.
- Evolving insights into erythrocytes in synucleinopathiesby Ying Yang on July 23, 2024
Synucleinopathies, including Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple system atrophy (MSA), and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), are characterized by neuronal loss accompanied by α-synuclein (α-syn) accumulation in the brain. While research conventionally focused on brain pathology, there is growing interest in peripheral alterations. Erythrocytes, which are rich in α-syn, have emerged as a compelling site for synucleinopathies-related alterations. Erythrocyte-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs),...
- Rational design of structure-based vaccines targeting misfolded alpha-synuclein conformers of Parkinson's disease and related disordersby Jose Miguel Flores-Fernandez on July 22, 2024
Synucleinopathies, including Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple system atrophy (MSA), and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), are neurodegenerative disorders caused by the accumulation of misfolded alpha-synuclein protein. Developing effective vaccines against synucleinopathies is challenging due to the difficulty of stimulating an immune-specific response against alpha-synuclein without causing harmful autoimmune reactions, selectively targeting only pathological forms of alpha-synuclein. Previous...