USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A February 26, 2015 Politico Morning eHealth article highlighted CEOi and USAgainstAlzheimer's new partnership with Optum Labs to leverage big data to accelerate the pace of Alzheimer’s research. According to the article, "Using the big data approach, finding such patients might involve scouring records of people with other ailments to find behaviors that suggest early Alzheimer’s — for example, a patient with congestive heart failure who repeatedly fails to take her medications. “You can make use of all sorts of information about peoples’ behaviors within the health care system, and put it together with lab values and other factors,” Bleicher said. The research agenda also focuses on understanding progression of the disease and the best care delivery methods, according to a news release from CEOi.”

MUST READ

A February 27, 2015 Scientific American article highlighted the progress of developing better diagnostic tools for Alzheimer’s disease. According to the article, “More than five million people in the U.S. currently have Alzheimer’s, and that number is increasing with the aging population. Clinical diagnoses from specialists can be accurate up to 90 percent of the time but currently the only way to confirm that an individual has the disease is to examine the brain after death. Researchers are working to develop tests that diagnose Alzheimer’s earlier and more reliably…A number of diagnostic tests are now in various stages of development in the research pipeline…Finding a test that can diagnose Alzheimer’s sooner could eventually mean that patients receive the news years before severe symptoms set in. At the very worst, Goetzl says, early diagnosis could mean having to retire or lose freedoms such as car privileges."

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY

A February 27, 2015 Phys.org article reported on the “super-resolution revolution” happening in medical research imaging and its implications for Alzheimer’s research. According to the article, “Cambridge scientists are part of a resolution revolution. Building powerful instruments that shatter the physical limits of optical microscopy, they are beginning to watch molecular processes as they happen, and in three dimensions…Kaminski's team has been visualising the ultrastructure of the clumps of misfolded proteins that cause Alzheimer's disease. "We'd like to study what causes proteins to become toxic when they aggregate, and visualise them as they move from cell to cell to see whether there are opportunities early in the process to halt their progression.””

A February 26, 2015 Times of Israel article highlighted Israel’s Human Brain Project and its efforts to develop a “framework for understanding learning, memory, attention, and goal-oriented behavior.” According to the article, “The HBP will, for the first time, provide real insight into how the brain works, enabling scientists, engineers, programmers, and others to interface with it and develop programs, products, and procedures that will make life better and easier,  according to Professor Henry Markram, co-director of the Human Brain Project.”

INDUSTRY

A February 26, 2015 Wall Street Journal article reported that “Novartis AG is amending a clinical trial of a promising heart drug it’s developing in order to address questions from doctors that the medication might contribute to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.” According to the article, “A recent paper in the European Heart Journal cautioned that previous studies suggest this type of medicine, known as a neprilysin inhibitor, “may accelerate” progression of Alzheimer’s. The authors of the paper, some of whom work as consultants to Novartis, declined to comment…It remains unclear how significant the Alzheimer’s risk associated with LCZ696 might be. The drug may well become an important part of treating patients with chronic heart failure, improving their lives and lowering overall costs by reducing hospitalizations.”