The Journal of Quality Research in Dementia Issue 8 (scientific version)

Dr Ayesha Khan

Scientific Liaison Officer

This year has seen a number of exciting research studies shed light on how dementia develops in people with Alzheimer's disease and also provided some potential avenues for the development of treatments to slow or halt the development of the disease.

Animal models of disease are key tools in research that help scientists identify mechanisms and pathways that are affected when things go wrong. Scientists have created different models systems that mimic the disease state. One such example is the fruit fly which has long been used to analyse the genetics of disease. In this issue Megan Sealey and Dr Amrit Mudher from the University of Southampton review the tremendous progress made using fruit fly models that exhibit the tangle pathology of Alzheimer's disease, including new techniques which allow researchers to look at how proteins move within nerve cells in living flies.

Until only recently researchers believed that once adult brain cells died they could not be replaced, leading us to believe that there was no hope for conditions such as dementia where extensive damage and brain cells loss results from toxic events. It has now been established that stem cells exist in certain areas of the adult brain where they continuously divide to renew themselves as well as produce new nerve cells. These adult brain stem cells were first reported to exist in 1992. Since then they have been scrupulously researched to make certain that they can generate each major type of nerve cell. Adult stem cells are an excellent source of new brain cells and offer the hope of therapeutic brain repair. In this issue Dr Kaylene Young, Alzheimer's Society stem cell research fellow, reviews the progress made in the area of stem cells in Alzheimer's research.

With increasing scientific knowledge to inform the development of potential new treatments, there is a need to rigorously test the effectiveness of drugs, treatments and interventions through clinical trials. The numbers of people diagnosed for dementia is rising, and many people with and without a diagnosis would like to be involved in trials. A twenty-fold increase in the number of trials is needed to help us translate scientific advances into new treatments more quickly. Alzheimer's Society has responded to the need to connect the general public to scientists with a portal to a clinical trials registry on the society website. In this issue Craig Ritchie discusses the changes that need to be implemented to improve recruitment for clinical trials of Alzheimer's treatments.

As the population ages, there will be greater numbers of people with dementia in the UK and globally. In the UK a significant proportion of general hospital patients are people with dementia, but their care is not adequate. Life-changing decisions are often made about the long-term care of people with dementia but without sufficient consultation of families, carers or social workers due to time and resource restrictions. There is evidence that indicates improved outcomes when there is active intervention. In the fourth review of this issue of the e-journal, Prof Bart Sheehan of Warwick University explores the status quo in general hospital management of people with dementia and examines the gathering evidence and its implications for the future of hospital care of dementia patients.