The Research

F or patients with mild cognitive impairment, don’t be surprised if your health care provider prescribes exercise rather than medication. A new guideline for medical practitioners says they should recommend twice-weekly exercise to people with mild cognitive impairment to improve memory and thinking. The recommendation is part of an updated guideline for mild cognitive impairment published in the Dec. 27 online issue of  Neurology , the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Regular physical exercise has long been shown to have heart health benefits, and now we can say exercise also may help improve memory for people with mild cognitive impairment,” says Ronald Petersen, M.D., Ph.D., lead author, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Mayo Clinic, and the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging. “What’s good for your heart can be good for your brain.” Dr. Petersen is the Cora Kanow Professor of Alzheimer’s Disease Research. Mild cognitive impairment is a...

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researcher Dr. Charis Teh has led a study revealing a quality control step in the development in immune T cells. Credit: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Australia The research into T cell development within an organ called the thymus revealed for the first time that a protein complex called LUBAC enables 'quality control' of the cells before they are released into the bloodstream. T cells are an important component of the immune system, orchestrating immune responses in reaction to infections. The thymus is like a 'school' for T cells, training them how to fight infections and eliminating the 'naughty' cells that have the potential to launch dangerous autoimmune attacks on the body's own tissues. Only a small proportion of the T cells that begin their development 'graduate' and are allowed out of the thymus, into the bloodstream - the rest do not survive. Dr Charis Teh, Dr Daniel Gray and colleagues made the di...