March 17, 2015

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A March 16, 2015 BioCentury article [p. 11] highlighted the use of big data in the fight against Alzheimer’s and CEOi’s partnership with Optum Labs. According to the article, “A not-for-profit industry coalition focused on AD research, the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease (CEOi) is leading the Big Data Research Initiative to Fight Alzheimer’s Disease, which was launched last month to provide resources to enable industry, academia and government agencies to use big data to develop a better understanding of who will develop AD, and when; how quickly a person’s AD will progress; and how best to deliver care. “You can see a wide variety of potentially quite interesting things happening to people on the path to Alzheimer’s and people not on the path to Alzheimer’s” by looking through claims data, electronic health records and consumer data, said George Vradenburg, founder and chairman of not-for-profit advocacy group USAgainstAlzheimer’s. Vradenburg and USAgainstAlzheimer’s convened CEOi.”

A March 16, 2015 MyCentralJersey.com article reported that Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) honored five New Jersey women in memory of his mother who died of Alzheimer’s in 2009. According to the Sen. Menendez, “My mother, Evangelina, for whom this award is named, showed me the meaning of courage, integrity and the importance of fighting for what's right, every single day of her life…She blazed that trail for me and I will continue to honor her and all of the women whose strength, wisdom and tireless determination to stand up for the people they serve make our country and our state a better, safer, cleaner place to live, work and raise a family." Senator Bob Menendez is co-chair of the LatinosAgainstAlzheimer’s Honorary Congressional Committee. 

MUST READS

A March 17, 2015 Reuters article reported that the “world's first venture capital fund dedicated to finding new ways to prevent and treat dementia has raised more than $100 million with the backing of the British government and several of the world's leading drugmakers.” According to the article, “The global Dementia Discovery Fund is unique in focusing on a single difficult to treat disorder and in bringing together industry and government. Drug companies involved include GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Biogen Idec. The initiative, announced by Britain's health minister Jeremy Hunt at a meeting in Geneva on Tuesday, follows a Group of Eight (G8) nations conference in London in December 2013 that set a goal of finding a cure or effective treatment for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia by 2025.” Also reported on by the AP and the Financial Times

A March 16, 2015 The Street article reported that Biogen researchers will present “detailed results for the first time from an early-stage study of the company's experimental drug BIIB037 in patients with the mildest forms of Alzheimer's disease” on Friday. According to the article, “Friday's presentation is important because it will fill in key details about BIIB037 that were left unanswered last December, when Biogen first told investors the drug demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in amyloid levels and improved cognition compared to a placebo. The successful phase I study was small, and Biogen still must conduct larger phase III studies to confirm the positive effect of BIIB037 on Alzheimer's patients.”

A March 16, 2015 The Dallas Morning News article reported that “Evidence continues to accumulate that physical activity can help hold off the changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease and perhaps the devastating symptoms of the disease itself.” According to the article, “The latest information comes from researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, who looked at 317 adults in late middle age and determined that those who exercised five times a week or more had fewer of the age-related changes in the brain that are associated with the disease and did better on cognitive tests…People who exercised had less accumulation of beta amyloid plaque, the proteins that build up in the brains of people who suffer from Alzheimer’s. They had less shrinkage of the hippocampus and less reduction in use of glucose in the brain, two other symptoms of the disease. And they had fewer neurofibrillary tangles, twisted fibers inside brain cells of people with Alzheimer’s.”