USA2 SPOTLIGHT

Tune in to our March 12, 2015 Alzheimer’s Talks! Dr. Newport, along with USF Health Byrd Alzheimer's Institute Assistant Director for Clinical Research Jill Smith, will be joining our March Alzheimer’s Talks to discuss the trial. The USF study examines whether ketone bodies, a substance produced when the body breaks down coconut oil, can improve memory in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s. Sign up here. 

A March 5, 2015 BioCentury article reported that “stakeholders are optimistic that Alzheimer’s disease funding is on the rise.” USA2’s George Vradenburg told BioCentury “2014 is going to be looked at as a real turning point for dementia and Alzheimer's disease. We are seeing palpable energy around this disease that was not there two or three years ago.” [Behind Paywall]

MUST READS

A March 5, 2015 NBC Bay Area article reported that new study released by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that “About 4 million American households include at least one adult with increasing memory loss or confusion.” According to the article, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study is the first to report on worsening memory loss or confusion in households and could offer insight into the health and financial consequences for families. Older adults with complaints about memory have a greater risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, which is potentially a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease.” [Read the study here]

A March 5, 2015 UT San Diego article profiled one woman’s life “living under Alzheimer’s cloud.” According to the article, “Tyrone is one of the rare 2 percent of people to have inherited two ApoE4 genes, one from each parent. Depending on the study, that genetic makeup puts her chances of coming down with late-onset Alzheimer’s — the most common form of the fatal neurological disease — in her lifetime at 91 percent or 12 times more likely than other people. It also puts her at the highest risk for developing it as early as 60 years old…It had already taken at least four of Tyrone’s relatives and was, at that time, ravaging her father’s life. And even though she had no signs of Alzheimer’s, for the first three years after she got her test results, it had started ruining Tyrone’s life.”

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY

A March 6, 2015 Roll Call opinion piece by Todd E. Gillenwater highlighted issues with the Innovation Act (H.R.9), including its impact on California’s life sciences sector. According to Gillenwater, “This legislation is especially problematic for small biomedical companies in California and elsewhere. In some cases, intellectual property may be these firms’ only major asset. Reducing the ability to capitalize on innovative technologies could delay critical therapies, tools and diagnostics for cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s and many other conditions. The Innovation Act also threatens an increasingly important sector of our economy. In California alone, the life sciences industry employs more than 270,000 people, generates more than $27 billion in wages, and pays over $3 billion in California state and local taxes.” Todd E. Gillenwater is senior vice president of Public Policy at the California Healthcare Institute.

A March 5, 2015 Drug Discovery & Development article reported that “UCLA life scientists have created an accurate new method to identify genetic markers for many diseases — a significant step toward a new era of personalized medicine, tailored to each person’s DNA and RNA.” According to the article, “Genes contain RNA editing sites, which are not yet well understood, but appear to hold clues to many diseases. One might think that whatever is in the DNA we inherited from our parents would eventually be expressed in our proteins, but it turns out there is a modification process, called RNA editing, that can contribute to different types of cancer, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and many others, Xiao said.”

A March 5, 2015 Neurology Advisor article reported that the ongoing Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s Disease (A4) study received an $8 million funding boost. According to the article, “The $8 million funding boost provided by the Alzheimer’s Association will help support a subset investigation of A4 participants as well as another study of 500 volunteers for a drug trial and brain PET scans to measure tau protein deposits. The scans will utilize AV1451 tracer to image tau tangles to see if the anti-amyloid antibody treatment affects tau burdens.”