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Epilepsy and Alzheimer’s Blood Biomarkers in Older Adults

MHD featured image for epilepsy, Alzheimer’s blood biomarkers, and AT(N) profiles in older adults.

A preprint in 84 older adults with epilepsy found that abnormal Alzheimer's-related blood biomarkers were common, but the biomarker categories did not line up neatly with cognitive impairment. Research Highlights Only 32.1% had normal biomarkers: 27 of 84 older adults with epilepsy were A−T−N− using blood-based amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration markers.1 AD-continuum profiles were common: …

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Football Head Impacts Linked Cortical Slowing to NET and BDNF Maps

MHD featured image for adolescent football head impacts and cortical slowing maps.

A 91-player adolescent football preprint mapped head-impact-related cortical slowing onto brain receptor and gene-expression maps: concussion-related slowing aligned with norepinephrine transporter density, r = 0.43, and alpha-4 beta-2 nicotinic receptor density, r = 0.50, while aligning inversely with dopamine D2, BDNF, and APOE maps.1 The result is a mechanistic clue about where head-impact physiology may …

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Alzheimer’s RVI-AD MRI Score Predicted Dementia Conversion With 0.70 AUC

A 2026 Molecular Psychiatry study found that RVI-AD, a structural-MRI score measuring how closely a person’s brain anatomy matches an Alzheimer’s disease pattern, predicted mild-cognitive-impairment conversion to dementia most strongly over the next 3 years: OR 2.16, 95% CI 1.81-2.57, p < 2e-16, AUC 0.70.1 Research Highlights Short-term conversion signal: in 965 ADNI participants with …

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Plasma p-tau217 Blood Test Predicts Alzheimer’s Risk 1.5x Stronger in APOE-e4

Photoreal illustration representing a blood biomarker test for Alzheimer's disease with imagery of blood vials, neurons, and APOE genetic motifs.

Until recently, Alzheimer’s pathology could only be confirmed in living patients via PET imaging or lumbar puncture. Plasma p-tau217 changed that calculus — but how to interpret a positive result depends substantially on APOE genotype.1 Research Highlights Plasma p-tau217 is a blood biomarker that rises years before Alzheimer’s symptoms. The 2024 Alzheimer’s Association revised criteria …

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