News

Roughly 20 percent of Alzheimer’s disease patients in Finland combine sleeping pills (benzodiazepines) with strong painkillers (opioids), a practice that has been associated with serious risks, a study shows. These findings highlight the need for therapeutic strategies that reduce the unnecessary co-use of these compounds, according to the authors of…

  A new treatment using focused ultrasound to treat early-stage Alzheimer’s disease was successfully administered to a patient. The treatment, which involves incisionless surgery and no pharmaceuticals, is part of a worldwide Phase 2 trial. The trial (NCT03671889) is underway and recruiting up to 10 participants — men or…

Use of an active DNA vaccine in mice with hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease significantly lowered the toxic accumulation of amyloid plaques and tau without triggering severe brain swelling — a damaging complication seen in earlier antibody treatments. These results may pave the way to test this DNA vaccine in clinical…

Deep learning, a type of artificial intelligence, used brain imaging scans to predict — years in advance and with nearly 100% sensitivity — patients who eventually developed Alzheimer’s disease, a study reports. The study, “A Deep Learning Model to Predict a Diagnosis of Alzheimer Disease by Using 18F-FDG PET of…

A new approach for delivering antibody-based therapeutics to the brain by exploiting the fluid surrounding the brain’s blood vessels was proposed in a recent preclinical study. This improved brain immunotherapy delivery strategy has implications for treating diseases of the brain and spinal cord, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis…

Essential oils derived from different plant species have revealed encouraging clinical and preclinical results to reverse cognitive and memory impairments in Alzheimer’s disease, a review study has found. The study, “Essential Oils as Treatment Strategy for Alzheimerʼs Disease: Current and Future Perspectives,” was published in the journal…

Alector’s candidate immune system-targeting therapy for Alzheimer’s disease, called AL002, will be evaluated for safety and tolerability in a first Phase 1 clinical trial, the company announced. AL002 is an antibody that targets and activates TREM2 (triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2), a receptor selectively expressed on microglia — a group…

People with dementia, including those with Alzheimer’s disease, often are also living with one or more other chronic diseases  that significantly impact their quality of life, according to a new study. The study, “The impact of comorbidity on the quality of life of people with dementia: findings from the…

Increasing evidence places beta-amyloid aggregates at the center of the toxic protein clumps and neuroinflammation that drive Alzheimer’s, two experts in this disease said, and a personalized, combination treatment likely will be the best way of helping patients. These insights were shared at a recent Key Opinion Leader luncheon meeting,…

A retired U.S. executive has given $5 million to the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) College of Sciences to establish a contest that challenges scientists to find the cause of Alzheimer’s disease, building on work begun by pioneering neuroscientist Oskar Fischer more than a century…