February 26, 2015

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A February 25, 2015 CEOi and USAgainstAlzheimer's press statement annouced that a new partnership with Optum Labs to “harness Power of big data” to accelerate the pace of Alzheimer’s research. According to the article, "In collaboration with Optum Labs, the open center for health care research and innovation in Cambridge, Mass., CEOi has launched the "Big Data Research Initiative to Fight Alzheimer's Disease," targeted at drawing stakeholders from industry, academia and government agencies to accelerate the pace of Alzheimer's research for treatments and care. The initiative will generate input from a broad set of collaborators and provide output and insight to other stakeholders and to the public in order to advance the field. CEOi is raising funds to support the research from private sector organizations, foundations supporting Alzheimer's research and other stakeholders focused on the care and cure of patients with Alzheimer's disease."

MUST READS

A February 26, 2015 Illinois Times article highlighted the power of music to "spark" life in individuals living with Alzheimer's. According to the article, "Dr. Thomas Ala, interim director of the Alzheimer’s center at SIU medical school, says patients with Alzheimer’s disease typically experience memory loss and confusion, often accompanied by a loss of initiative. Ala says the introduction of music appears to “trip a switch” in many patients’ brains, possibly renewing connections between the right and left sides of the brain that have been destroyed by the disease. The effect appears different than that of watching TV, he says, because listening to music typically doesn’t require following a plot. Exactly how music affects the brain of an Alzheimer’s patient isn’t known, Ala says, but he hopes future research will reveal that mechanism, along with other ways to use music or related stimuli to help patients."

A February 25, 2015 Harvard Gazette article reported that Harvard researchers "have proposed a new model of Alzheimer’s that suggests mitochondria — cellular power plants — might be at the center of the disease." According to the article, "In the model Demetrius and Driver describe, the disease’s first step is what they call “mitochondrial dysregulation.” The process is largely part of the natural course of aging. As a person ages, the researchers say, the mitochondria in the cells generate energy less and less efficiently. Mitochondria, with their own DNA, are akin to the descendants of simple organisms that lived in a symbiotic relationship inside more complex ones. The mitochondria that produce cellular energy from nutrients such as glucose, in a process called oxidative phosphorylation, are incredibly efficient."

A February 25, 2015 Fierce Biotech article reported that the UK's multimillion-pound dementia R&D investment fund is expected to start operating within the next few weeks. According to the article, "The fund is expected to start operating within weeks, giving cash-hungry dementia R&D teams a new source of money to tap. Officials have yet to reveal how much cash is in the kitty, but have disclosed details of the fund's structure and goals. The fund is pulling together money from public and private investors to finance R&D programs that could move the U.K. toward its goal of finding a treatment that cures or slows the progress of dementia by 2025…Cameron is advancing the funding boost in parallel to a project to establish an international dementia institute. The aim is to have the institute up and running within 5 years and double the number of people taking part in clinical trials. A semivirtual trial project is in the pipeline to support the goal."