USA2 SPOTLIGHT

The Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease is circulating a sign-on letter to members of the House of Representatives supporting an additional $414 million in Alzheimer’s research funding for fiscal year 2018. We need every Representative to join this call for increased research funding. Please take a minute to contact your Representative TODAY and urge him or her to sign on to support the funding we need to stop Alzheimer’s.

MUST READS

A March 30, 2017 Independent article reported on high hopes around the clinical trial for intepirdine, by the drugmaker Axovant, aimed at slowing memory loss in Alzheimer’s patients. If successful at increasing levels of acetylcholine in the brain, which carries messages from one cell to another, it would work in tandem with existing medicines that prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine. “It may provide more symptomatic benefit, but like the drugs that currently exist, it will not change the course of the disease. But it is great that people have another option, and maybe it will work better than the ones that are currently available,” according to Tara Spires-Jones, Interim Director, Edinburgh University's Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems.

According to a March 30, 2017 Pink News article, the standard of care for LGBT people with dementia in the UK is “a woeful failure,” based on a new government-backed study. They are less likely to have children than their straight, cis counterparts, and therefore “may be estranged from their family and feel more isolated. And this isolation is compounded if you also have dementia.”

A March 28, 2017 USA Today article highlighted the National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center, an agency which fights global diseases and would be eliminated if President Trump’s budget is adopted. For the past 50 years, the center has promoted and facilitated international health research and trained thousands of researchers in more than 100 countries. New insights to guide Alzheimer’s research have come from collaboration with Colombian researchers.

RESEARCH, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

According to March 30, 2017 Yahoo! Finance article, Alzheon presented data and announced results in support of its ALZ-801 Alzheimer’s Disease study, for patients in the mild stage of AD, which is expected to initiate this year. The trial will administer oral amyloid-targeted medicine utilizing a precision medicine approach. “Alzheon’s new insights are defining a more targeted and higher probability path for developing innovative medicines by directing Alzheimer’s R&D to the right patients, with the right drug, and at the right stage of their disease,” said Martin Tolar, MD, PhD, Founder, President and CEO of Alzheon.

CAREGIVER CORNER

Both of Lori Verderame’s parents had Alzheimer’s and in a March 30, 2017 Centre Daily Times article, she shared how family heirlooms helped jog their memories and stories. “My mom’s memory could be sparked by such diverse objects… such as her wedding photo, a Hummel figurine from her collection from the 1950s or an afghan that she crocheted in the 1970s.” And about her father, whose disease manifestation was different than her moms: “I found that my dad’s verbal loop could be interrupted if I introduced a related object to him… I were to hand him a baseball from our attic… he could grip the baseball and show me how to throw a curve.” Lori continues, “It goes to show heirlooms are much more than just basement clutter or china cabinet dust collectors. Vintage objects are more than just something to save, they can be memory savers.”

REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES

According to March 30, 2017 Las Vegas Review-Journal article, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed an Alzheimer’s related bill into law yesterday. Senate Bill 92, sponsored by Sen. Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, makes the Alzheimer’s Task Force a permanent entity within the Department of Health and Human Services.

EVENTS AND RESOURCES

Brain Health Registry (BHR) launched a new initiative called the Caregiver and Study Partner Portal (CASPP). This innovative tool allows BHR participants to designate someone who knows them well, such as a family member or close friend, to join BHR as their study partner. The information gathered from the participant-study partner pair can be used to better identify those at risk for developing brain disease.