MUST READS

A November 17, 2016 The Washington Post article highlighted a physician using virtual reality to treat patients with dementia. According to the article, “Sonya Kim, a physician in the San Francisco Bay area, has been taking virtual-reality headsets to seniors as a part of their medical treatment. Her therapy program, Aloha VR, lets seniors use the headsets to bring variety into their days, relax and provide a chance to get away to a virtual tropical locale.”

A November 17, 2016 The Guardian article highlighted the need for integrated care for individuals living with dementia. According to the article, “If dementia is now a leading cause of death in England and Wales (Report, 15 November), this is partly due to increasing awareness and diagnosis of dementia, along with improving treatments for general medical disorders...However, these figures also highlight the urgent need to improve access to advance care planning and palliative care for patients who have end-stage dementia. Patients with advancing dementia experience significant psychiatric and medical comorbidities, which can pose difficult management issues for relatives and attending physicians. Advance care planning is a targeted intervention that promotes autonomy in end-of-life decisions, before individuals lose decision-making capacity.”

A November 17, 2016 SCVNews.com article reported that “To advance urgently needed research in Alzheimer’s disease, the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, is engaging with researchers, drug companies, and the public as they design new clinical studies for promising drugs, especially in light of it being National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month.”

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A November 17, 2016 AlzForum.org article reported that “In the hunt for the elusive origins of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers may have to dig deeper than ever before. Deeper into the brain, that is.” According to the article, “Researchers led by Nathan Spreng of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, tapped into longitudinal imaging, biomarker, and cognitive data from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative to track the pathological chain of events leading to AD. They report that the forebrain had already started shriveling in people who had abnormal levels of Aβ42 in their cerebrospinal fluid but were still cognitively normal. In contrast, the entorhinal cortex only began to shrink once a person started having memory problems as well.”

A November 17, 2016 MedScape.com article reported that “The oral antiamyloid drug tramiprosate benefits a subgroup of patients with ε4 alleles of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene, without increasing vasogenic brain edema, a side effect linked to other drugs that target amyloid, a new analysis of phase 3 data suggests.”

A November 17, 2016 ScienceDaily.com article reported that “Australian researchers have shed new light on the nerve cell processes that lead to Alzheimer's disease (AD), overturning previously held ideas of how the disease develops and opening the door to new treatment options that could halt or slow its progression.”

An November 17, 2016 New Scientist article reported that “Alzheimer’s disease can be prevented by stopping a crucial brain protein from turning rogue, a study in mice suggests.” According to the article, “Tau protein has long been suspected to play a role in causing the condition. In healthy brains, tau is essential for normal cell functioning. But during Alzheimer’s disease, the protein goes haywire, clumping together to form twisted tangles and, it is thought, releasing toxic chemicals that harm the brain.”