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A rat model genetically engineered to express high levels of two genes can help researchers learn more about the disease mechanisms that lead to Alzheimer’s disease, a new study shows. The study, “Memory deficiency, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, and amyloid-β plaques in APP+PS1 double transgenic rat model…

Biogen and Ionis Pharmaceuticals are expanding their strategic collaboration through a new 10-year agreement to develop novel RNA-targeted therapy candidates for a broad range of neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. This agreement builds on the collaboration that produced Spinraza (nusinersen), the first and only approved treatment…

Sleep deprivation in healthy people leads to the accumulation of a protein fragment associated with abnormalities in brain function and Alzheimer’s disease. The study, “β-Amyloid accumulation in the human brain after one night of sleep deprivation,” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the…

A stem cell therapy developed by the biotech company Nature Cell and the Biostar Stem Cell Research Institute, both based in South Korea, has been formally approved in Japan and is now available there to treat mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease patients. This is the first time ever that a stem cell therapy for…

Brown University has received a $100 million donation from alumnus Robert J. Carney and Nancy D. Carney to advance research into some of the world’s most challenging diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease. The gift triggered a change in the name of the already well-established Brown Institute for Brain…

A simple test of amyloid-beta protein levels in a person’s blood may offer a way to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease up to eight years before any clinical symptoms are evident, a study shows. The study, “Amyloid blood biomarker detects Alzheimer’s disease,” was published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.

CurePSP and the Rainwater Charitable Foundation (RCF) have joined forces to launch the “Prime of Life Brain Initiative,” an effort to support research seeking new treatments and cures for neurodegenerative diseases. Specifically, the initiative will focus on frontotemporal disorders, or conditions where tau protein forms toxic “tangles” that…

Long-term use of BIIB037 (aducanumab) can prevent progression of Alzheimer’s in patients at early stages of the disease, according to results from the PRIME study. Biogen, maker of aducanumab, will present those results at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), April 21-27…

New data on how Allergan’s Namenda (memantine) — given in combination with cholinesterase inhibitors — works to help ease some symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting in Los Angeles, April 21-27. The data, the results of five studies supported by Allergan,…

An injection of IONIS-MAPTRx resulted in a 70 percent decrease in tau protein produced in the brains of non-human primates, researchers at  Ionis Pharmaceuticals, the potential treatment’s maker, are reporting. These positive pre-clinical findings helped in the design of a first clinical study, now underway and enrolling, that will…