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These findings appear in the  Journal of Alzheimer's Disease . More than 10 million individuals worldwide are affected annually by TBI, however the true prevalence is likely even greater given that a majority of TBIs are mild in severity and may not be recognized or reported. TBI is a major public health and socioeconomic concern resulting in $11.5 billion in direct medical costs and $64.8 billion in indirect costs to the U.S. health system in 2010 alone. According to the researchers the relationship between TBI and long-term cognitive trajectories remains poorly understood due to limitations of previous studies, including small sample sizes, short follow-up periods, biased samples, high attrition rates, limited or no reports of exposure to repetitive head impacts (such as those received through contact sports), and very brief cognitive test batteries. In an effort to examine this possible connection, researchers compared performance on cognitive tests over time for 706 par...

The team of the MRC scientists -- led by Michel Goedert, MD, PhD, and Sjors Scheres, PhD -- along with IU Distinguished Professor Bernardino Ghetti, MD, and Assistant Research Professor Holly Garringer, PhD, of the IU School of Medicine Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, are the first to present high-resolution structures of tau filaments from the brain of a patient with a confirmed diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Ghetti said their findings, published online July 5 in  Nature , represent one of the major discoveries of the past 25 years in the field of Alzheimer's disease research. "This is a tremendous step forward," Dr. Ghetti said. "It's clear that tau is extremely important to the progression of Alzheimer's disease and certain forms of dementia. In terms of designing therapeutic agents, the possibilities are now enormous." Tau proteins are a stabilizing element in healthy brains, but when they become defective, the pro...