November 28, 2016

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

USA2 SPOTLIGHT 

A November 27, 2016 Media Planet article highlighted the work of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s and the need for investment in sex-based Alzheimer’s research. According to the article, “…Trish Vradenburg and her husband George decided to make fighting the disease their life goal. They co-founded UsAgainstAlzheimers, a nonprofit committed to stopping Alzheimer’s by 2020. Their work includes fundraising and awareness, as well as speeding up drug development for the disease…Research shows more women get Alzheimer’s than men, indicating the need for gender-based research. Unlike diseases such as HIV and cancer, which get a lot of attention and funding, Alzheimer’s awareness and funding has been limited.”

A November 26, 2016 The Kansas City Star article highlighted Kansas University’s focus on Alzheimer’s prevention research and the work of the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation. According to the article, “In October, the Washington-based Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation — tasked with increasing the nation’s pool of study volunteers, thus hastening therapies to market — announced the formation of “K.C. Memory Strings Alliance” among local physicians’ groups, large area employers and others to help point volunteers toward studies.”


MUST READS

A November 27, 2016 CBS News broadcast segment highlighted drug trials underway to prevent Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “This week on 60 Minutes, correspondent Lesley Stahl reports on a community in and around Medellin, Colombia, where residents may be the key to figuring out if the disease might someday be preventable.  That’s because it’s the largest concentration in the world of people who carry a rare genetic mutation that makes them 100 percent certain to develop early-onset Alzheimer’s. It’s a particularly cruel version of the disease that strikes people in their mid-40s and leads to death about a decade later.”

A November 27, 2016 Boston Globe opinion piece by Jeffrey Sachs underscored the need to invest big to drive big innovation. According to Sachs, “Of all of the purposes of government, one of the most important but often neglected is to mobilize science and technology to solve critical challenges. Modern society depends on highly complex technological systems for our safety and prosperity. Without these advanced technological systems, we’d have no chance to sustain national prosperity, much less to meet the basic material needs of a global population of 7.4 billion people. Yet managing and improving those technologies requires a large and sustained investment by government alongside business and academia…Other areas crying out for greater public investments in R&D include: smart grid systems to manage 21st-century infrastructure; fourth-generation nuclear energy; advanced materials sciences for environmental sustainability; the early identification and control of emerging epidemic diseases such as Zika and Ebola viruses; advanced agricultural technologies for crop resilience to climate change; improved nutrition; geriatric medicine (including the soaring costs of Alzheimer’s disease); and improved cyber-security, including for important e-governance functions such as online voting.”

A November 25, 2016 AlzForum.org article reported that “Scientists led by David Weir and Kenneth Langa, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, reported November 21 in JAMA Internal Medicine that between 2000 and 2012 the prevalence of dementia in the United States fell a stunning 24 percent among people older than 65.” According to the article, “The data come from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which includes people from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. It may mean a million fewer dementia cases over the next two or three decades than were projected, Langa said.”

A November 27, 2016 The Globe and Mail article highlighted the growing impact of dementia on China. According to the article, “The cost of elder care threatens to strain government spending around the world. But in no country are more people entering old age faster than China. In coming years, a vast cohort of Chinese people will enter their twilight years and, barring a medical breakthrough, many millions of them will begin to experience dementia.”


RESEARCH ROUNDUP 

A November 26, 2016 Indy Star article highlighted Lilly’s setback with  solanezumab in a late-stage clinical trial. According to the article, “illy's drug sought to clear the amyloid protein from the brain before it clumps together, forming plaques. After the failure of solanezumab, scientists are sure to re-evaluate the best approach to treating Alzheimer's. Lilly has more Alzheimer's drugs in its pipeline. Other companies, including Merck & Co. Inc. and Biogen Inc., also are pursuing treatments. Carrillo said she's hopeful that a combination of drugs will prove effective against Alzheimer’s.”

A November 25, 2016 The Wall Street Journal article highlighted cause for optimism of Lilly’s recent announcement about its Alzheimer’s drug sola. According to the article, “These are the kinds of fraught R&D decisions that explain why modern drugs can be so expensive. The federal government will spend merely about $991 million on basic Alzheimer’s research in 2016, despite a 2011 law meant to boost resources. Without private risk-takers like Lilly, progress is unlikely. Meanwhile, scientific theories live in mortal danger of facts. The beta-amyloid hypothesis may well be wrong, and Lilly’s contribution could push medicine in more promising directions. Luckily, more than 75 other Alzheimer’s treatments are under clinical investigation.” [Behind paywall]

A November 25, 2016 Bloomberg.com article warned against “Digging through failed drug trials to find justification for moving forward with medicines is a recipe for failing again.”