Magdalena Kegel,  —

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Anavex Life Sciences a patent covering nerve protection treatments that combine Anavex 2-73 and donepezil. The patent is titled “ANAVEX 2-73 and certain anticholinesterase inhibitors composition and method for neuroprotection.” It offers Anavex exclusive rights to the approach through 2033, the…

Canadian researchers are working on the creation of a virtual assistant that could help people with Alzheimer’s disease do a better job of managing their daily lives. A key feature of the assistant, which scientists call ACT@Home, will be its ability to align its directions with a person’s emotional condition.

Alzheimer’s disease leaves traces in the white blood cells of its patients that could be used to diagnose the disease. So says a study by researchers at Arizona State University (ASU) who used a blood test to correctly distinguish between patients with early Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and healthy people. More importantly, the…

Aducanumab reduced deposits of the amyloid plaque associated with Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of early-stage patients who took part in a three-year extension trial, Biogen reports. After the study ended, deposits of the protein were lower in many patients’ brains than the level that a scan would identify as…

Increasing the intake of trace amounts of lithium over a long period may prevent Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia, recent findings suggest. But the link between lithium and dementia is nonlinear, and the wrong amount appeared to increase dementia risk, according to…

In the future, doctors may diagnose Alzheimer’s disease by scanning a patient’s eyes — thanks to new evidence that telltale plaques of amyloid-beta are present not only in the brain, but also in the retina. Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles has developed a method to noninvasively detect amyloid deposits in…

A lack of energy in brain cells called microglia might explain why people with mutations in the TREM2 gene are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, according to a mouse study that showed exhausted microglia lacked the capacity to confine amyloid plaques. By restoring the energy levels in these cells,…

National Football League athletes might be at increased risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain condition linked to dementia and abnormal behavior. A recent study published in JAMA found that 87 percent of investigated players had signs of brain damage after death. Dementia was diagnosed in 85 percent of those…

A single amino acid can determine where an enzyme cuts a precursor to the amyloid beta protein — and the difference can translate into either a healthy brain or Alzheimer’s, according to a Canadian study. The research showed that a shorter version of amyloid beta does not turn into the…

A compound that blocks the activity of so-called HDAC enzymes in the brain improved learning in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, according to data that Regenacy Pharmaceuticals presented at the recent 2017 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) July 16-20 in London. Regenacy’s RCY-1305 blocks the enzymes HDAC1 and HDAC2, which…