Magdalena Kegel,  —

Taconic Biosciences is improving its services to Alzheimer’s disease researchers — creating a ready-to-use stock of an important mouse model of the disease. Earlier procedures forced researchers to wait for months to receive mice ready for experiments, potentially slowing research efforts. As human brains are difficult to study, animal models…

Axsome Therapeutics’ investigational drug AXS-05 was recently granted fast track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of agitation in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The designation intends to speed up the development and regulatory handling of the drug, which is currently in the planning…

The schizophrenia medication Rexulti (brexpiprazole) reduced agitation in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, newly released data from two Phase 3 clinical trials of the drug show. The studies highlight that efforts are ongoing to target symptoms — other than dementia itself — to improve the quality of life of Alzheimer’s…

Sedatives increase the risk of pneumonia in people with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a recent study, acting as a reminder to physicians that non-medical approaches should be considered before drugs in these patients. The study, “Risk of pneumonia associated with incident benzodiazepine use among community-dwelling adults with…

Cardiovascular risk factors in middle age contribute later in life to amyloid-beta plaque in the brain, according to a comprehensive study that followed adults for more than 20 years. The findings underscore the idea that lifestyle factors are crucial drivers of Alzheimer’s disease. Importantly, this signals that Alzheimer’s is not inevitable, since…

The Alzheimer’s disease scientific community is changing its research focus from treatment to prevention, according to researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The shift has been driven by increased insights into the mechanisms of the disease, as well as better tools to study Alzheimer’s-associated brain changes…

Americans who want to assess their risk for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease may now order $199 genetic tests, now that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed 23andMe to sell such genetic analyses directly to consumers. Besides Alzheimer’s, the Mountain View, Calif., company has received authorization for reports on Parkinson’s disease, hereditary…

So-called “SuperAgers” lose brain volume more slowly than their normally aging peers, protecting them from dementia, according to a new study that proves yet again that Alzheimer’s disease — like other dementias — is not an inevitable fate in predestined individuals. The study, “Rates of Cortical Atrophy in Adults 80…

Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological illnesses cost Americans about $789 billion in 2014 — a price tag that will go only up as the country’s elderly population doubles by 2050. Yet the Trump administration’s proposal to cut the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $5.8 billion, or 18…

Mice with Alzheimer’s who are unable to produce the protein Ephexin5 have no memory problems, despite having brains littered with the amyloid beta protein that has been linked to the disease, a study reports. The finding prompted Johns Hopkins University researchers to conclude that blocking the protein, which is found…