News

People with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease  treated for three weeks with sargramostim, a medication that activates the immune system, showed improvements in cognition in a small clinical trial. These results support further investigation of sargramostim — and, more generally, the strategy of targeted immune activation — in treating Alzheimer’s, its…

Donanemab showed an ability to slow cognitive decline and the loss of daily life abilities in people at earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease relative to those given a placebo in the Phase 2 TRAILBLAZER-ALZ trial, researchers report. A plaque-targeting therapy, donanemab also cleared substantial amounts of amyloid plaques in the brains…

Use of salbutamol significantly improved blood flow — a measure of cerebral perfusion, or the steady flow of nutrients and oxygen via the blood to brain tissue — in healthy people in a Phase 1 trial, according to data from CuraSen Therapeutics, the investigative therapy’s developer. Poor cerebral perfusion…

Non-invasive neurostimulation given to people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease significantly and safely slowed their rate of functional and cognitive decline, meeting key goals of the Phase 2 OVERTURE study, according to data presented at the 2021 AD/PD Conference. Its neurostimulation device, being referred to as a digital therapeutic, uses gamma frequency…

Cytox has launched a noninvasive genetic test, called genoSCORE-LAB, that can help to predict a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and the cognitive decline it brings. Early detection of possible risk for this progressive, degenerative disease could encourage lifestyle changes that might slow Alzheimer’s onset and the rate…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found “deficiencies” that preclude discussing further steps in the approval process for Nuplazid (pimavanserin) as a possible treatment of dementia-related psychosis, according to a press release from Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Nuplazid’s maker. Discussions on “labeling and post-marketing requirements/commitments” cannot take place before certain…

Racial discrimination is a barrier to care in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, according to two U.S. surveys conducted on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Association. This opinion was supported by more than one-third of Black Americans (36%), and nearly one-fifth of…

Cassava Sciences plans to launch two Phase 3 clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of simufilam, its investigational oral treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, in the second half of this year, the company announced. If successful, results of these studies in patients with mild-to-moderate disease will…

A Phase 1 trial will evaluate the use of gene therapy in delivering brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) to the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which often precedes dementia. Researchers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine are preparing to…

The National Institute of Aging (NIA) and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) have awarded $4.6 million to a team of researchers studying the potential of the cancer therapy Revlimid (lenalidomide) in treating people with early stage Alzheimer’s disease. Two clinical trials, each supported by one of these…