If researchers could uncover and mimic whatever protects these escapees, they might develop better treatments — even preventive therapies — not only for families plagued by inherited Alzheimer’s but for everyone.
In Alzheimer’s and related neurodegenerative diseases, the brain protein tau is closely linked to brain damage and cognitive decline. A new study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that T cells play a key role in tau-related neurodegeneration, a finding that suggests new treatment strategies for Alzheimer’s and related diseases.
Microglia-mediated T cell infiltration drives neurodegeneration in tauopathy
Neurologists discuss the major milestones in identifying biomarkers for detecting early Alzheimer’s disease over the past two decades.
Globalization of ADRD clinical trials has become a pressing need as 68% of the people living with ADRD will reside in low-middle-income countries (LMICs) by 2025.
For 20 years, the Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center has worked to boost diversity in clinical trials.
“This drug is not a cure. It doesn’t stop people from getting worse, but it does measurably slow the progression of the disease,” said Dr. Joy Snider, a neurologist at Washington University in St. Louis. “That might mean someone could have an extra six months to a year of being able to drive.”
Randall Bateman of Washington University, St. Louis, presented the biomarker evidence, concluding that it indicates the treatment modified underlying biology. “These findings support the ability to change the course of Alzheimer’s disease,” he told Alzforum.
Biogen Inc. and Eisai Co. caused a stir in September when they announced positive results in a late-stage trial for a closely watched Alzheimer’s drug, lecanemab. Doctors tempered their excitement, though, until they could scrutinize the full peer-reviewed data.
That data arrived Tuesday night. And while it is stoking enthusiasm that physicians might soon be able to offer patients a treatment that can slow the progression of the devastating disease, doctors need to carefully balance that optimism with safety concerns and the reality that the drug is far from a cure — and in fact, it’s hard to quantify how meaningful it might be for a given patient.
The second (and third) time was not the charm for Roche’s experimental antibody drug for Alzheimer’s disease. The company last night announced gantenerumab had failed to show a statistically significant benefit in two large, late-stage clinical trials that tested its ability to slow patients’ cognitive decline—echoing a previous failure in another so-called phase 3 trial.
A new diagnostic tool by C2N Diagnostics is an important new tool for physicians in the evaluation of Alzheimer disease. It could pave the way for earlier diagnosis and treatment and greater enrollment in clinical trials.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found an innovative way to improve waste clearance from the brain, and thereby possibly treat or even prevent neurodegenerative conditions. They showed that immune cells surrounding the brain influence how efficiently waste is swept out of the brain, and that such immune cells are impaired in old mice, and in people and mice with Alzheimer’s disease. Further, they found that treating old mice with an immune-stimulating compound rejuvenates immune cells and improves waste clearance from the brain.
Scientists are launching a study designed to make or break the hypothesis that Alzheimer’s is caused by a sticky substance called beta-amyloid. The study will give an experimental anti-amyloid drug to people as young as 18 who have gene mutations that often cause Alzheimer’s to appear in their 30s or 40s.
A five-year, $9 million grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will fund research led by several investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and at the University of Texas at San Antonio to answer that question.
The Alzheimer’s disease (AD) drug lecanemab’s recent success in Biogen’s Phase III clinical trials might have more to do with its effect in increasing levels of soluble amyloid-beta than in decreasing amyloid plaques in the brain, the findings of a new study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease on October 4, 2022, suggests.
Carlos Cruchaga, PhD, the Barbara Burton and Reuben M. Morriss III Professor in psychiatry, is one of three Zenith Fellows selected this year and one of only 146 Alzheimer’s researchers chosen for the honor since it was created in 1991.
Dr. Jorge Llibre is a Washington University neurologist that researches Alzheimer’s. He says research shows the Hispanic community is two times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s or dementia than non-Hispanics.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a new druggable pathway that potentially could be used to help prevent Alzheimer’s dementia.
A study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has shown that targeting astrocytes — an inflammatory cell in the brain — reduces tau-related brain damage and inflammation in mice.
On today’s show, we’ll focus on the future of biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease. We know that amyloid beta and tau protein deposit long before patients with Alzheimer’s develop symptoms. If we could use biomarkers to detect this pathology early, and treat patients early, could we prevent the progression to dementia?
Could drugs prevent Alzheimer’s? These trials aim to find out
A research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified potential new treatment targets for Alzheimer’s disease, as well as existing drugs that have therapeutic potential against these targets.
A research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified potential new treatment targets for Alzheimer’s disease, as well as existing drugs that have therapeutic potential against these targets.
A research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified potential new treatment targets for Alzheimer’s disease, as well as existing drugs that have therapeutic potential against these targets.
A new study shows safety and potential benefit for patients with mild disease. Axon’s experimental vaccine AADVac1—currently the most clinically advanced tau therapy in development—aims to do exactly that. Its goal is to activate our bodies’ defense system to clear out free-floating tau proteins in our brains before they can form harmful tangles that accumulate inside nerve […]
When the U.S. government approved the Alzheimer’s disease drug aducanumab last month despite shaky evidence of clinical benefits, Suzanne Schindler saw an immediate consequence: “We’re going to have to do a lot more biomarker testing.” Schindler, a neurologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, expects many patients with memory problems will […]
An investigational Alzheimer’s drug reduced molecular markers of disease and curbed neurodegeneration in the brain, without demonstrating evidence of cognitive benefit, in a phase 2/3 clinical trial led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis through its Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network-Trials Unit (DIAN-TU). These results led the trial leaders to offer the drug, […]