News

Pain Therapeutics has received a $1.8 million research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the development of a technology to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in early stages based on a simple blood test. AD is a progressive disorder, meaning it slowly destroys memory and cognitive skills.

Biohaven and the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) have jointly launched a Phase 2 clinical trial for the investigational drug trigriluzole, a glutamate modulating candidate that could potentially improve symptoms in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Preclinical studies and post-mortem human Alzheimer’s studies suggest that abnormalities in the…

Older people — ages 60 to 75 — in good cognitive health but with two copies of the “risk gene” for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are being asked to take part in Generation Study, a collaborative and global research project investigating treatments that might stop the disease from developing. Two copies of the APOE4 gene are inherited, one from…

Researchers have found a connection between an infection with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. The study, “Toxoplasma Modulates Signature Pathways of Human Epilepsy, Neurodegeneration & Cancer,” was published in the journal Nature. One of the major challenges in medicine today is finding a cure for non-contagious diseases…

White women whose genes put them at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease are more likely than white men with similar risk genes to be diagnosed between the ages of 65 and 75, a study drawing on patient data in North America and Europe reports. Overall, between the ages of 55 and 85, Caucasian…

Research on Alzheimer’s treatments could benefit from the adaptive clinical trial approach used in breast cancer research, three Georgetown University scientists argue in a commentary. An adaptive approach involves modifying a trial as results come in to find the best way to treat the disease the trial is examining. The…

Researchers developed antibodies targeting a group of proteins called granulins, and discovered for the first time that they’re important to the well-being of lysosomes, which are vital organelles linked to neurodegenerative diseases that include Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). This discovery, by a research team at Emory University School of…

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) have found that the presence of two additional amino acids in the amyloid beta (Aβ) protein sequence forms the basis of amyloid plaque formation and Alzheimer’s disease development. Their study, “Few Ramachandran Angle Changes Provide Interaction Strength Increase in Aβ42 versus Aβ40 Amyloid Fibrils,” appeared…

University of Maryland students have developed a device to diagnose Alzheimer’s before its symptoms are evident. It uses sounds to detect changes in the brainwaves of people with the disease. The achievement earned the seven team members — all sophomores at the A. James Clark School of Engineering — the top prize at…

More 100 neurologists, other scientists and disease advocates are supporting the Alzheimer’s Breakthrough team in its goal of getting “launched” at next month’s XPRIZE summit. Their effort centers on crowdsourcing, attracting a worldwide spectrum of experts and innovators to develop new technologies focused on brain health. These technologies encompass artificial intelligence, biotechnology, precision pharmaceuticals, physics…