USA2 SPOTLIGHT

Join FloatingKnowledge’s online community of experts to help design an XPRIZE aimed to to treat, cure and/or eradicate Alzheimer’s Disease. Get involved and share your wisdom with the crowd. More than 100 leading neuroscientists, advocates and exponential technology experts have already contributed their ideas and insights to this process, including UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Founder George Vradenburg.

MUST READS

An October 29, 2018 STAT News article spotlighted neurobiologist Robert Moir of Massachusetts General Hospital, who has long fought for funding to explore his theory that beta-amyloid, a major hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, is a response to microbes in the brain. According to the article, “Moir’s experience is notable, however, because it shows that, even as one potential Alzheimer’s drug after another has failed for the last 15 years (the last such drug, Namenda, was approved in 2003), researchers with fresh approaches — and sound data to back them up — have struggled to get funded and to get studies published in top journals.”

An October 28, 2018 CISION PR Newswire news release focused on new, non-invasive eye scan technology, optical coherence tomography angiography, which allows researchers to see small blood vessels in the retina, at the back of the eye. These are altered in people with Alzheimer's disease. The retina is connected to the brain via the optic nerve, and this retinal blood vessel deterioration may mirror changes in the brain. The scan can identify non-symptomatic people with a familial history of AD, and distinguish between people with Alzheimer's and those with MCI.

MUST LISTEN

An October 29, 2018 Radio ABC (Australia) podcast explored if the function, or dysfunction, of the body’s waste management system, the endolysosomal system, could be linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Host Dr. Norman Swan talks with Professor Ville-Petteri Makinen of the University of Adelaide, and Dr. Tim Sargeant from the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.

RESEARCH AND SCIENCE

An October 26, 2018 Psychology Today article spotlighted the discovery of a new type of brain cell, the rosehip neuron, which has so far only been found in humans. This may help to explain why outcomes of studies using rodents are different from those on human brain tissue. According to the article, “The team found a group of compact human interneurons, with bushy branching, and axonal boutons that resemble large rosehips, the bulbous fruit of rose plants, in the human brain. Rosehip neurons are inhibitory neurons. Inhibitory interneurons help slow or cease excitation.”

PROFILES IN COURAGE

A Carlen Maddux blog post looked at how Alzheimer’s disease can inspire creativity and compassion. Maddux interviewed neurologist and Alzheimer’s advocate Dr. Daniel C. Potts, whose father has AD. Post-diagnosis, his father began to paint and Potts began to write poetry. According to Potts, “Poetry lifted me out of my funk. It’s now my most important outlet, along with hiking. And this came from the heart of a man with Alzheimer’s disease… Mostly what I feel when I write is gratitude for the opportunity we were given to see Dad’s spirit soar because someone cared enough to believe that he was still present, that his soul still sang despite the disease.”