News

Three leading Alzheimer’s researchers are forming a consortium to improve clinical trials in the field — an effort boosted by a $70 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Goals of the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium include sharing information and resources to make drug development more efficient and finding better…

Certain variations found in genes that correlate with intelligence and may affect “cognitive reserve” are evident in people with higher levels of education and appear to work to protect against Alzheimer’s disease (AD), new research shows. Better educating young adults may help to reduce the expected rise in AD incidence as…

Aricept (donepezil hydrochloride) is now approved in China to treat patients with severe Alzheimer’s disease, as well as those with mild or moderate disease, Eisai recently announced. The extended approval was based on the results of a Phase 3 clinical trial (NCT01404169) conducted in that country. The study was…

Marriage appears to be a strong and favorable factor in a person’s risk of developing dementia, with evidence suggesting that married people are at considerably lower risk than people who never marry or those who have lost a partner. The study, “Marriage and risk of dementia: systematic review…

Canadian researchers have developed a simple tool to track cognitive performance, so doctors can identify those at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. QuoCo consists of charts that show what a healthy person’s cognitive performance ought to be. It takes into account the person’s age,…

Probiodrug and Crossbeta Biosciences are extending a partnership that Probiodrug believes will help it continue developing a potential Alzheimer’s therapy. Under the partnership, established in 2016, the companies are using a proprietary Crossbeta technology to try to create biomarkers specific to Alzheimer’s as opposed to   neurodegenerative diseases in general.

Trace levels of lithium in drinking water reduce Alzheimer’s death rates in addition to two risk factors for the disease — obesity and Type 2 diabetes, according to a study. The Canadian study dealt with lithium in Texas’s drinking water. Researchers published their work in the Journal of Alzheimer’s…

The number of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment, which can be a precursor to the disease, will more than double to 15 million by 2060, according to a new UCLA Fielding School of Public Health study. With funding from the…

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have found that Alzheimer’s disease causes microglia — the immune cells that normally protect brain cells from damage — to change their behavior and instead promote a pro-inflammatory immune response. Their study, “Temporal Tracking of Microglia Activation in Neurodegeneration at Single-Cell Resolution,” appeared in…

Changes in brain cells known as astrocytes mirror transformations in Alzheimer’s disease, and may contribute to patients’ nerve cell degeneration, a Finnish study reports. It is the first time that research has shown that astrocytes may contribute to Alzheimer’s. The University of Eastern Finland team published their work, “PSEN1 Mutant iPSC-Derived Model…