July 29, 2015

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

MUST READS

A July 28, 2015 Science Insider article reported that “the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released the first such bypass budget proposal for Alzheimer’s disease, which is projected to triple in prevalence by 2050.” According to the article, “Distilled from discussions at a series of NIH meetings and consortia, the new document requests $1.06 billion for Alzheimer’s research in the 2017 fiscal year that begins 1 October. That’s $323.5 million more than the $737 million the president requested in the formal budget request. The new request, which NIH expects to update yearly, identifies 66 separate “milestones” for the Alzheimer’s community, ranging from research projects into the molecular pathogenesis and physiology of Alzheimer’s to new clinical trials, and studies aimed at caregiver support.”

A July 28, 2015 Science Times article reported that “women who undergo surgery and take anesthesia are also at risk of suffering from faster cognitive decline than men." 


RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A July 28, 2015 Reuters article reported that a small study suggests “insulin resistance may increase the risk for Alzheimer’s disease by depriving the brain of sugar needed for normal cognition.” According to the article, “Insulin resistance, the body’s failure to respond to the hormone, is a hallmark of diabetes. Diabetes itself – a disease in which the body can't properly use insulin to convert blood sugar into energy - has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, but the exact nature of the connection isn’t as clear. In the current study of 150 middle-aged people with normal cognitive function, those with higher blood sugar levels had significantly lower levels of insulin processing, or glucose metabolism, in some regions of the brain involved in memory performance, the study found.”

A July 28, 2015 MedPage Today article reported that “bapineuzumab appeared to clear amyloid plaques from the brains of Alzheimer's patients even though it provided no clinical benefits in early trials, researchers reported.” According to the article, “In a subanalysis of two phase III bapineuzumab trials, patients on the drug had a reduction in amyloid plaques on PET imaging compared with those on placebo, Enchi Liu, PhD, of Johnson & Johnson, reported online in Neurology. The benefits were driven by APOE4 carriers, and were more apparent for those with mild rather than moderate disease, they noted.”