News

The use of antidepressants in patients with Alzheimer’s disease increased their risk of head injuries, a Finnish study recently found. The risk of head injuries in these patients previously had not been studied. Head injuries are often a consequence of falls in older people.

A student-led team of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) in St. Louis, Missouri, has developed an online app designed to streamline the process of Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. It provides physicians with more information about patients before they are evaluated in person, enabling physicians to assess and assist patients…

VTv Therapeutics has received another U.S. patent for azeliragon, an Alzheimer’s treatment that targets a receptor involved in the disease’s inflammation. Azekuragan is an antagonist of the advanced glycation endproducts, or RAGE, receptor, meaning that it prevents the receptor from acting. Found in low levels in a healthy brain, RAGE…

The National Institutes of Health has awarded the University of California at Davis a multiyear grant of nearly $14.7 million to pinpoint the reasons why Latinos have higher rates of dementia than other American ethnic groups. Nine other universities will take part in the UC Davis-led study. Researchers will…

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…