USA2 SPOTLIGHT

An October 15, 2015 UsAgainstAlzheimer’s press statement announced the formation of the the Global Alliance on Women’s Brain Health “to raise awareness of women’s brain health challenges and significantly expand funding for sex-based brain health research, that benefits both men and women.” According to Jill Lesser, president of WomenAgainstAlzheimer’s, “Today, there is virtually no concerted drive to fund research on women’s brain health around the world and no global cooperation among women leaders. Yet, the data reveals that women’s brains are more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease and other problems associated with cognitive function. The time is now to mobilize a global sense of urgency and to advance an understanding of why women experience dementia differently and to develop effective treatments and a cure that meet women’s needs.”

An October 14, 2015 BioSpace release announced that Axovant Sciences joined the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease, a group convened by UsAgainstAlzheimer's. According to Vivek Ramaswamy, CEO and founder of Axovant, “As a leading clinical-stage company dedicated to developing novel therapies for patients with dementia, we are thrilled to partner with George and the CEO initiative to help deliver meaningful improvements to Alzheimer's disease patients and their caregivers. We share the organization's commitment to driving innovation and bringing new solutions to the problem of Alzheimer's disease.”

MUST READS

An October 15, 2015 Medical News Today article reported that  a “new study challenges a commonly held view about the shape and composition of the initial structures that form when the beta-amyloid molecules come together.” According to the article, “The study, led by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Barcelona (IRB Barcelona) in Spain, is published in the journal Scientific Reports. It finds that a technique used by Alzheimer's disease researchers to analyze the beta-amyloid clumps as they initially come together is flawed because of conclusions it draws about the shapes of the aggregated proteins and the number of molecules they contain. The technique is called SDS-PAGE.”

An October 14, 2015 WPR.org article reported that “U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (R-WI) has introduced legislation to develop a national strategy to assist families who care for sick and elderly loved ones.” According to the article, “Baldwin says the RAISE Act is designed to help the estimated 43 million family caregivers in the United States…The RAISE Family Caregivers Act is cosponsored by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.”

An October 14, 2015 Sentinel Source article reported that Jeb Bush expressed his support for medical innovation during an employee town hall meeting at Smiths Medical in Keene, NH. According to the article, “He said he wants to ‘embrace innovation’ in the medical device field to promote better care — an objective he said could be accomplished by reforming the U.S. Food and Drug Administration so new products and treatments could be approved faster and at a lower cost. This could lead to better treatment of mental health diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s, Bush said.”

An October 8, 2015 BrightFocus blog post highlighted new evidence about Tau's spread in early Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “The new research findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, show that a damaged, toxic form of tau protein may spread from neurons in exosomes, or minute particles that are released from microglia, the brain’s innate immune cells.”