March 10, 2015

Today's Top Alzheimer's News


USA2 SPOTLIGHT

Tune in this week to our Alzheimer’s Talks! On March 12, Dr. Newport, along with USF Health Byrd Alzheimer's Institute Assistant Director for Clinical Research Jill Smith, will be joining our March Alzheimer’s Talks to discuss the trial. The USF study examines whether ketone bodies, a substance produced when the body breaks down coconut oil, can improve memory in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s. Sign up here. 

USA2 has been added to the Seniors Blue Book as a resource for older Americans across the country. 


MUST READS 

A March 9, 2015 Bloomberg Business article profiled Google Ventures and its “search for immortality.” According to the article, “In 2014, it started Google Capital to invest in later-stage technology companies. Maris’s views on the intersection of technology and medicine fit in well here: Google has spent hundreds of millions of dollars backing a research center, called Calico, to study how to reverse aging, and Google X is working on a pill that would insert nanoparticles into our bloodstream to detect disease and cancer mutations…Listening to the scientists gathered around the table, it’s hard not to get caught up in the world they see coming. In this vision of our future, science will be able to fix the damage that the sun or smoking or too much wine inflicts on our DNA. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other scourges of aging will be repaired at the molecular level and eradicated. In the minds of this next generation of entrepreneurs, the possibilities are bizarre and hopeful and endless. We probably won’t live forever, but we could live much longer, and better. These are the bets Google Ventures is hoping will ultimately be its biggest wins. “We aren’t trying to gain a few yards,” Maris says. “We are trying to win the game. And part of it is that it is better to live than to die.””

A March 10, 2015 Associated Press article highlighted a new documentary called “Looks like Laury, Sounds like Laury” about Laury Sach’s battle with early onset dementia. According to the article, “At age 46, the once witty, exuberant woman was having difficulty expressing herself; neurological tests ultimately diagnosed frontotemporal dementia. It's the term for a group of disorders that tend to occur at a younger age than Alzheimer's, between 40 and 75, and which affect areas of the brain generally associated with personality, behavior and language, according to the Mayo Clinic. When Sacks' husband, Eric, asked for help in keeping her engaged, Shulman suggested to her friend the idea of recording her struggle. Sacks didn't need words to respond.” "Looks Like Laury, Sounds Like Laury," the result, debuts at 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday (check local listings) on World Channel, part of the third season of its "America ReFramed." The documentary will stream on worldchannel.org starting Wednesday and through April 9. Also reported on by The Boston Globe


MINORITY IMPACT

A March 10, 2015 The Guardian opinion piece by Des Kelly called for for the UK to address the unique challenges of LGBT community in the country’s dementia strategy and training. According to Kelly, “Given LGBT older people may be estranged from their relatives and lack family support, formal care is likely to be even more important than it is for their heterosexual peers. We know where some of the biggest challenges lie. For example, prejudice – current or historic – can affect how someone perceives and experiences support. While some lose their inhibitions due to dementia, others who have previously come out feel unable to be open about their sexuality or transgender status. Dementia causes anguish and confusion; this experience could be exacerbated as older people with the condition struggle to deal with negative perceptions of their sexuality or gender in residential care…The dignity in care agenda is of growing importance in our sector, but we must ask if its core values of respect and compassion truly extend to all those we support. While part of the solution rests on wider changes in social attitudes towards older LGBT people, there is much that we as a social care workforce can do to lead the way." Des Kelly is the executive director of the National Care Forum.


RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY

A March 9, 2015 NPR article reported on an emerging link between Mad Cow research and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. According to the article, “Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ravage the brain in very different ways. But they have at least one thing in common, says Corinne Lasmezas, a neuroscientist and professor at Scripps Research Institute, in Jupiter, Fla. Each spreads from brain cell to brain cell like an infection…Prions, it turns out, become toxic to brain cells when folded into an abnormal shape. "This misfolded protein basically kills the neurons," Lasmezas says…As scientists learned more about prion diseases like mad cow, they began to realize that misfolded proteins had a role in several human brain diseases. "Little by little," Lasmezas says, "it became clear that there are a lot of common features between prion diseases and the other diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.””

A March 9, 2015 The Wall Street Journal article reported that “a decline in postmortem exams has slowed scientific advances.” According to the article, “Alzheimer’s disease can only be definitely diagnosed by an autopsy, which may find that a patient had a different form of dementia. Vascular dementia, for example, occurs when mini strokes and blockages reduce blood flow to the brain. Knowing that can help family members evaluate their own risk and take steps to reduce it, such as maintaining a healthy blood pressure. Some Alzheimer’s research centers welcome donations of deceased patients’ brains, which can help scientists learn how the disease progresses and inform diagnoses and treatments for others. Donors’ families can get autopsy reports in return.”