A new online report from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) highlights recent progress in NIH-supported Alzheimer’s disease research.
The initiatives, objectives, and advances detailed in the 2012-2013 Alzheimer’s Disease Progress Report seek to help meet the Plan’s research goal—to effectively treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease by 2025, if not sooner.
A new study published in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that clinical depression is associated with a 30% increase in brain inflammation.
This finding provides the most compelling evidence to date of brain inflammation, and more specifically microglial activation, in MDE. The correlation between higher ACC TSPO VT and the severity of MDE is consistent with the concept that neuroinflammation in specific regions may contribute to sickness behaviors that overlap with the symptoms of MDE.
A new study published in the British Medical Journal finds that anti-anxiety drugs may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s.
The drugs have been associated with short-term cognitive impairment, but the connection to Alzheimer’s has been less clear. Now, the new study finds a convincing, and apparently strong, link between benzodiazepines and Alzheimer’s disease.
A team of researchers from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), Weill Cornell Medical College, and Brandeis University has devised a wholly new approach to the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease involving the so-called retromer protein complex.
Retromer plays a vital role in neurons, steering amyloid precursor protein (APP) away from a region of the cell where APP is cleaved, creating the potentially toxic byproduct amyloid-beta, which is thought to contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s.
Additional data from the Phase III Gammaglobulin Alzheimer’s Partnership (GAP) study, including select analyses of subgroups, biomarker and imaging data, was presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) in Boston, Massachusetts
On cognitive measures, an analysis of ApoE4 carrier patients who were treated with the 400mg/kg biweekly dose (n=87) of immunoglobulin (IG), found a statistically significant difference (p=0.012) in change from baseline in the 3MS score at 18 months versus placebo.
Alzheimer’s Drug Sneaks Through Blood Brain Barrier
A double-sided antibody targets enzyme to reduce levels of harmful amyloid-β protein in monkeys.
Alzheimer’s patients have brains with significantly more genetic variation than the brains of those without the disease, according to a study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute.
The finding may help scientists track down the mechanism that causes nearly all cases of Alzheimer’s, a mechanism that is not well understood.
American Academy of Neurology Updates Practice Guideline for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)
The updated guidelines reflect increased MCI research, the significance of MCI in clinical practice, and therapeutics in trials.
Big data in Alzheimer’s: Are women more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease than men?
JAMA Neurology reports on the differences in carriers of the “most potent genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease” – the apolipoprotein E ε4 (APOE4) allele.
Are humans the only ones who are able to remember events that they had experienced and mentally time travel not only into the past but also the future? Or do animals have the same capacity?
The model developed by the three researchers Prof Markus Werning, Prof Sen Cheng and Prof Thomas Suddendorf differs from other approaches with regard to one major aspect: it suggests a new relationship between mental time travel and episodic memory.
Axovant’s interpirdine fails to meet the trial’s primary endpoints. Read the Alzheimer’s Forum interpirdine report
What potential therapy reports out next? There are not a lot of large, late stage, Alzheimer’s trial results expected until 2019 (including Biogen’s aducanumab, Merck’s BACE- oriented verubecestat, and Lilly/AstraZeneca’s lanabecestat).
Biohaven and Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) Announce Phase 2 Clinical Trial Collaboration Evaluating Glutamate Modulating Agent Trigriluzole In Patients With Mild-To-Moderate AD.
The Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. announced today its clinical trial collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS).
Can exercise slow or prevent cognitive decline in older people at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease?
The new NIA-supported EXERT study, in partnership with the YMCA, is looking to find the right dose of exercise to slow memory loss.
Disclosing Amyloid Status in an Alzheimer’s Prevention Trials – First A4 Study Disclosure Results Published in JAMA Neurology
From the accompanying JAMA Neurology editorial “What is clear is that, with the advance of molecular diagnostic tools in neurology, clinicians and investigators will increasingly be faced with the challenge of presenting patients with information of uncertain prognostic significance. The investigators of the A4 study are to be commended for developing a thoughtful process of…
Does Mild Behavioral Impairment Precede MCI? Review the AAIC 2016 “MBI” Checklist Report.
Researchers presenting at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2016 (AAIC 2016) in Toronto introduced and described a new condition or patient status, known as Mild Behavioral Impairment (MBI), that may be a forerunner of neurodegeneration and progression to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia.
Dr. Neil Buckholtz of the NIA discusses ADNI in a summary of the recent presentations at the AAIC in Copenhagen and other Alzheimer’s research news.
From early morning to late evening, at symposium and plenary sessions, during poster sessions and coffee breaks, at add-on meetings and consortium sessions, some 4,300 investigators from 75 different countries shared recent findings and explored ways to overcome the challenges of finding ways to treat or prevent this complex disease.
Stanford researchers identify iron-containing microglia in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease
Examining post-mortem tissue from the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, Stanford University School of Medicine investigators identified what appear to be iron-containing microglia in a particular part of the hippocampus, a key brain structure whose integrity is critical to memory formation.