March 27, 2015

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

MUST READS

A March 27, 2015 Boston Globe article reported on progress with the A4 study and issues with recruiting minority participants. According to the article, “The A4 study has enrolled about 100 participants, and some of the centers are struggling to attract a racially and ethnically diverse group of volunteers. The goal is to fill 200 of the 1,000 slots with people of color. “We need to come up with additional efforts, thinking outside the box, to reach people of all ethnic groups,” said Sperling, who directs the Alzheimer’s research and treatment center at the Brigham. One significant hurdle was designing a test to detect subtle changes in memory and thinking for Spanish-speaking participants. Researchers learned that certain words or concepts may be interpreted differently by Hispanic participants in California from Mexican descent, compared to those from New York with Puerto Rican lineage. For Sperling, the A4 study is a mission. While she was in medical school three decades ago, her grandfather developed dementia, and watching him fade away convinced Sperling to make Alzheimer’s research her life’s work. Sperling vowed she would find a cure before its tentacles ensnared her father.”

A March 26, 2015 Scientific American article highlighted ethical considerations associated with brain research. According to the article, “Brain research is opening dazzling frontiers in health, but crossing into that territory raises a particularly thorny set of ethical concerns. President Obama has called upon bioethicists to join with neuroscientists to take up these challenges as a part of his BRAIN Initiative, a public-private collaboration to map how all neural circuits interact at the speed of thought. In response, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, which I chair, has today released a report identifying three critical areas where we need new policies and guidelines: Informed consent, neuroscience in court, and cognitive enhancements.”


RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A March 27, 2015 Tech Crunch article reported on a health tracking app developed by a Parkinson’s patient to help track symptoms and generate research data. According to the article, “The latest is a startup which launches out of stealth today: MyHealthPal, an iOS app and analytics platform that enables people with long-term health conditions to manage their condition, is initially focusing on Parkinson’s Disease, but could be applied similar diseases…It’s often the case that the best startups are created by entrepreneurs who want to address problem they’ve encountered personally. In founder Mike Barlow’s case, it couldn’t be more personal. The tech entrepreneur founded the company after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s at age 41, two years ago. He discovered there was no effective way to manage and measure the effectiveness of his medication, track symptoms, log mood, diet, exercise and other metrics and their impact on his quality of life…Mary Keane-Dawson, Group CEO, MyHealthPal, says ultimately, MyHealthPal analytics platform will enable research and data scientists “to query large volumes of data, which is why MyHealthPal is such an interesting business for both investors and medical research institutions.” The startup says it’s now in “advanced discussions” with other institutions and charities both in the UK and US. The ‘market’ if you can call it that, is, unfortunately big. There are over 421 million people living with long-term chronic conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, Diabetes, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Irritable Bowel Disease, HIV/AIDS and Alzheimer’s according to the World Health Organisation.”


MINORITY SPOTLIGHT 

A March 26, 2015 Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper article highlighted the disproportionate impact of Alzheimer’s on African Americans. According to the article, “Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias are common in African Americans. In a study we conducted in the Indianapolis African American community in the 1990’s, approximately 8 percent of people over age 65 had dementia and most of these, 6 percent, had Alzheimer’s disease. The rates increased steadily with age ranging from about 2 percent in the group aged 65-74 to about 25 percent in people over the age of 85. These numbers are a big concern because people over the age of 85 are the fastest growing segment of our population.”


OPINION

A March 26, 2015 The Hill opinion piece by Sally Pipes warned against drug importation and its potential impact on R&D spending for diseases like Alzheimer’s. According to Pipes, “On the face of it, allowing Americans to purchase prescription drugs from abroad is an appealing idea. Thanks to price controls, drugs in my home country of Canada, if they are even available on a formulary, often carry a lower price tag than their American counterparts. In the UK, meanwhile, per capita prescription drug spending is about half what it is in the United States. Why not let Americans access cheap drugs? While importing prescription drugs might save American patients money in the short-term, it comes with enormous long-term costs. For one, it cuts off the research funding that drug laboratories need to develop the next generation of treatments. According to researchers at Tufts, it takes drug companies roughly $2.5 billion over the course of a decade to bring just one new medicine to market…A wave of drug importation would make pharmaceutical investment far less attractive, choking off funding for the researchers who work to develop the next generation of treatments for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's. That's a high price to pay for a discount on blood-pressure medication.”