News

Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals has received $10 million from two pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer and AbbVie, to advance its treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases toward clinical trials. Together with a previous investment from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Aquinnah’s research and development support totals $15 million. “We…

Oryzon Genomics is receiving $300,000 from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation to continue developing its Alzheimer’s treatment ORY-2001. In exchange, the foundation, which has been a longtime partner of Oryzon, will receive shares of the company’s stock. Oryzon develops epigenetics therapies, which regulate genome function without affecting the makeup of genes…

Results from four recent studies confirmed the beneficial clinical effects of Namenda (memantine), an FDA-approved Alzheimer’s therapy, to treat the disease’s behavioral and functional symptoms in people with moderate to severe disease. The studies, sponsored by Allergan, are being presented in poster format at the 2017 annual meeting of the American…

Two therapies — one approved and the other already in clinical testing — were seen in a study in mice to work to reduce brain shrinkage and prevent brain cell death. The therapies block a cellular pathway known to be responsible for neurodegeneration and brain cell death in mice. One of the…

The Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) seeks help from leading experts, pharmaceutical companies and nonprofit organizations around the world to fight Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia among older adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is the fifth leading…

Sedatives increase the risk of pneumonia in people with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a recent study, acting as a reminder to physicians that non-medical approaches should be considered before drugs in these patients. The study, “Risk of pneumonia associated with incident benzodiazepine use among community-dwelling adults with…

Cardiovascular risk factors in middle age contribute later in life to amyloid-beta plaque in the brain, according to a comprehensive study that followed adults for more than 20 years. The findings underscore the idea that lifestyle factors are crucial drivers of Alzheimer’s disease. Importantly, this signals that Alzheimer’s is not inevitable, since…

People who have trouble detecting details in a test with figures may be at increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease later in life, according to a new study. This finding suggests that subtle changes in cognition may be identified long before more common symptoms of Alzheimer’s appear. The study, “Family History of Alzheimer’s…

The Alzheimer’s disease scientific community is changing its research focus from treatment to prevention, according to researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The shift has been driven by increased insights into the mechanisms of the disease, as well as better tools to study Alzheimer’s-associated brain changes…

Antibodies that ProMIS Neurosciences created to target molecules associated with Alzheimer’s inhibit the accumulation of the amyloid beta protein that is a hallmark of the disease. The company’s researchers used two computer algorithms, ProMI and Collective Coordinates, to predict amyloid beta misfolding and five disease-specific targets for antibodies, according to a presentation…