January 27, 2017

Today’s Top Alzheimer’s News

USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A January 26, 2017 Clinical Trials Week article (via Insurance News Net), quoting a letter released by UsAgainstAlzheimer's Co-Founder and Chairman, George Vradenburg, highlighted a hopeful future for Alzheimer’s research based on lessons learned and essential future actions. Even in light of (the perceived failure of) Eli Lilly’s Solanezumab clinical trial, he proffers the experience "provides valuable lessons and suggests a way forward in the fight against Alzheimer's." In the letter, Vradenburg also stressed that the Solanezumab news underscores the need for more aggressive dosing and testing even earlier in the disease course.

MUST READS

A January 26, 2017 USA Today article explores the current state of Alzheimer’s research. Despite a 99% failure rate, and the Solanezumab setback in December, Alzheimer's researchers are plowing ahead with hundreds of Alzheimer’s experiments, aided by a boost in federal money. "The history of clinical trials results has been a history of disappointment," said Keith Fargo, Director of Scientific Programs and Outreach, Alzheimer’s Association. The 21st Century Cures Act, signed into law in December, sets aside $3 billion over 10 years to fund research of brain diseases and precision medicine, including prize money to encourage Alzheimer's research. And scientists have not yet given up on Solanezumab. The A4 study is testing the drug in adults who do not yet show outward signs of Alzheimer's, including memory loss or cognitive decline.

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY

A January 26, 2017 Science article explores the potential link between air pollution and dementia. Even proponents of the concept agree that more research is needed to confirm a causal connection. But a growing number of epidemiological studies from around the world, new findings from animal models and human brain imaging studies, and increasingly sophisticated modeling techniques, have raised alarms. In an 11-year epidemiological study, to be published next week in Translational Psychiatry, USC researchers will report that living in highly polluted areas nearly doubled dementia risk in older women. If the finding holds up in the general population, air pollution could account for roughly 21% of dementia cases worldwide, says the study’s senior author, Jiu-Chiuan Chen, Epidemiologist, Keck School of Medicine at USC.

CAREGIVER CORNER

A January 26, 2017 Good Call article reports that millennials are returning home to support their parents, countering popular lore about “boomeranging” (i.e. moving home because of high student loan debt). Last year, the Pew Research Center reported, “For the first time in the modern era, living with parents edges out other living arrangements for 18 to 34-year-olds.” This has been used to bolster the boomerang observation. However, the Economic Innovation Group recently reported on the complexity of reasons that millennials move back home. And a study released by Ameritrade shows about a fifth of millennials are classified as financial supporters, and as many as one-third are also caregivers. As well, millennials spent more in support of a parent or adult child than both Gen X and Boomers.