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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. Lewy body dementia is one of the most common causes of dementia. LBD affects more than 1 million individuals in the United States. People typically show symptoms at age 50 or older, although sometimes younger people have LBD. LBD appears to affect slightly more men than women. Diagnosing LBD can be challenging. Early LBD symptoms are often...

Dallas’ former chief is disappearing. Sarah Dodd knew something was wrong with her husband in November 2019. Though, if she’s being honest, she began to worry at least a year before that, probably longer. Something she couldn’t yet define, something still more feeling than fact. Just that thing, said the former television reporter, “when you’re around someone you love and you know when that person is not …” “... When that person is not himself.” Nov. 14, 2019, was one day after Dodd’s husband, former Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle, turned 69. To celebrate, the couple flew to Santa Barbara,...

She describes how, toward the end of his life, “Robin was losing his mind and he was aware of it.” He was struggling with paranoia, anxiety, delusions, insomnia, and other symptoms both physical and mental, and for months, he and his wife could get no answers about what was happening to him. He was eventually diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but as his symptoms continued to worsen, he grew “weary” and it felt like they were both “drowning.” Then, ultimately, he took his own life. It was only after his death that an autopsy revealed Williams actually had Lewy body disease...

This shows lewy bodies. Brown spots are immunostaining using an antibody specifically recognizing an abnormal form of alpha-synuclein. Clumps of α-synuclein protein in nerve cells are hallmarks of many degenerative brain diseases, most notably Parkinson's disease. "No one has been able to determine if Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, hallmark pathologies in Parkinson's disease can be degraded," says Virginia Lee, PhD, director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. "With the new neuron model system of Parkinson's disease pathologies our lab has developed recently, we demonstrated that these aberrant clumps in...