News

The physical properties of proteins in the spinal fluid and blood of people with Alzheimer’s disease may constitute valuable biomarkers to help diagnose disease progression and predict patients’ outcomes, new research from The Ohio State University suggests. The biomarkers may help researchers develop better treatments in the future, especially for later stages of…

Patients with Alzheimer’s disease may have more bacteria — and different types — in their brains, compared to the general population, according to results of a new study. These findings support that bacterial infection and inflammation may contribute to the development of this devastating disease. The study is titled “…

Pain Therapeutics will soon launch a Phase 1 clinical trial to study the safety and efficacy of PTI-125 in treating Alzheimer’s disease. The announcement came after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted the company’s investigational new drug application for the therapy. It follows a recently awarded $1.7 million research grant by the…

Cogstate’s digital cognitive testing system Cognigram is now available in the U.S. after Cogstate was notified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that Cognigram met the requirements of a Class II medical device from the agency’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “After more than fifteen years of…

National Football League athletes might be at increased risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain condition linked to dementia and abnormal behavior. A recent study published in JAMA found that 87 percent of investigated players had signs of brain damage after death. Dementia was diagnosed in 85 percent of those…

A recent study in mice showed that BACE inhibitors not only reduce cerebral amyloid-beta (Aβ) levels, but they also may improve the neural circuit and memory impairments in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers now plan to conduct a large-scale clinical trial with about 1,000 patients to determine in the unexpected…

A single amino acid can determine where an enzyme cuts a precursor to the amyloid beta protein — and the difference can translate into either a healthy brain or Alzheimer’s, according to a Canadian study. The research showed that a shorter version of amyloid beta does not turn into the…

A cell death mechanism linked to neuron loss in ALS and stroke also plays a role in neuron loss in Alzheimer’s, a study reports. The insight could lead to ways to stop neuron death in Alzheimer’s and to the development of therapies. Scientists have known that the cell death mechanism, necroptosis,…

A compound that blocks the activity of so-called HDAC enzymes in the brain improved learning in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, according to data that Regenacy Pharmaceuticals presented at the recent 2017 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) July 16-20 in London. Regenacy’s RCY-1305 blocks the enzymes HDAC1 and HDAC2, which…

The Gerontological Society of America has developed a free online toolkit to help primary-care doctors detect and diagnose cognitive impairment, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia. The toolkit is based on a four-step process for detecting cognitive impairment and diagnosing dementia earlier. The society named…