News

The state of New York lacks effective measures for preventing diabetes, which is fueling a dramatic increase in Alzheimer’s disease. So says a new document, “Unprevented Diabetes Means Unnecessary Alzheimer’s,” issued by Health People: Community Preventive Health Institute. Doctors say diabetes increases the risk of getting Alzheimer’s by 40 percent. Currently, New York state…

A special issue of PLOS Medicine that covers a broad range of new Alzheimer’s and dementia studies underscores the importance of a holistic, personalized-care approach to treatment, according to a California health care provider that promotes that approach. AFFIRMATIVhealth uses information from the latest research on these neurodegenerative conditions to…

A once-weekly transdermal patch delivers the most commonly prescribed treatment for Alzheimer’s disease in a way that is biologically equivalent to taking the medication orally, according to preliminary pilot study results. Corium International conducted the bioequivalence (BE) pilot study on its lead product, Corplex, which delivers donepezil — the same active…

Actors on CBS’s hit television series “Criminal Minds” have made a commercial to promote an Alzheimer’s Association awareness event called the Longest Day on June 21. The public service announcement builds on the show’s use of a character with Alzheimer’s to educate people about the disease. The commercial invites the…

Axsome Therapeutics’ investigational drug AXS-05 was recently granted fast track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of agitation in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The designation intends to speed up the development and regulatory handling of the drug, which is currently in the planning…

The U.S. Congress last week authorized an additional 40 percent in funds for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research, boosting the fiscal 2017 total by $400 million to nearly $1.4 billion as part of a $2 billion year-over-year increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The final package won praise from the nonprofit…

The Alzheimer’s therapy ALZ-801 works by preventing protein components from clumping together to trigger the amyloid plaque accumulation in the brain that causes the disease, researchers say. Disease-modifying drugs for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases could evolve from the findings, the team said. Researchers knew that tramiprosate, the active ingredient in …

The schizophrenia medication Rexulti (brexpiprazole) reduced agitation in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, newly released data from two Phase 3 clinical trials of the drug show. The studies highlight that efforts are ongoing to target symptoms — other than dementia itself — to improve the quality of life of Alzheimer’s…

The Dementia Discovery Fund will pump $5 million in initial financing into Cerevance, a start-up developing new approaches to treating dementia patients, 60 percent of whom have Alzheimer’s disease. The venture capital fund invests in companies and projects pursuing disease-modifying therapies for dementia. Cerevance has dual headquarters in Boston…

Memory loss and cognitive dysfunction, two hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, have now been linked to low levels of one particular protein, called NPTX2. The discovery represents a stepping-stone in the mechanisms underlying this disease, which may help in the development of new therapies. The study, “NPTX2 and cognitive dysfunction in…