FEEL GOOD STORY OF THE DAY

A December 11, 2018 CBS News video and article spotlighted Sandy Cambron and Shannon Gray Blair of Pearl's Memory Babies, who bring baby dolls and plushy puppies to people with dementia in senior living facilities in Kentucky. According to the article, “Cambron came up with the idea 12 years ago when her mother-in-law died from Alzheimer's. “My husband and I knew how much the baby doll we had given her meant to her,” she said. “So, at Christmas, instead of giving each other gifts, we bought baby dolls for different nursing homes and took them at Christmas time to the Alzheimer's patients, as our gift to each other.””

MUST READS

A December 12, 2018 New Atlas article reported that it may be possible to diagnose dementia before it damages the brain, and identify what kind of dementia a person will get. UT Southwestern researchers have discovered how a single tau protein molecule contains specific structural shapes that determine what larger toxic assemblies it will ultimately form. Several large assembly structures have been correlated with dementia. The ultimate goal is to develop a simple diagnostic test that can detect these single tau molecules.

INDUSTRY UPDATE

A December 12, 2018 Fierce Biotech article reported that Eli Lilly paid $81 million for worldwide rights to AC Immune’s Alzheimer’s disease tau aggregation inhibitors. According to the article, “AC Immune will take responsibility for moving the inhibitors through phase 1, beyond which Lilly will take charge. The agreement gives AC Immune a partner with considerable experience of phase 2 and 3 Alzheimer’s trials, although those earlier studies ultimately led to failures.” Also covered by Channel News Asia, Endpoints News, and others.

MUST LISTEN

A December 10, 2018 WEKU 88.9 radio segment interviewed Kelly Parsons of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky. According to Parsons, holidays can be “prime time” to notice a family member’s first signs of dementia including memory issues, confusion and changes in mood and behavior. “If your uncle or really good friend comes in and they’re not dressed appropriately. If they’re in a t-shirt and open toed shoes and its 30 degrees outside that’s certainly a warning sign they’re having a memory impairment problem,” said Parsons.

MUST WATCH

A December 11, 2018 Medscape video featured Richard S. Isaacson, MD of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine talking about how APOE4 gene tests may help better personalize risk-reduction care for people with Alzheimer's disease. According to Isaacson, “If someone has the APOE4 gene, we do know that they better stop smoking tobacco, because there is a specific interaction noted there. This highlights the role of epigenetics, the environmental interaction with genes to increase or decrease your risk for a disease. Tobacco plus the APOE4 gene presses the fast-forward button towards Alzheimer's disease.”

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

A December 11, 2018 The Tyee article looked at the politics of dementia, and called for increased advocacy, urgency and research in Canada. More than 400,000 Canadians over 65 have dementia, and over eight million are informal family caregivers. According to the article, “If dementia were considered a social issue, we’d all have to pay for it. Politicians would have to impose the taxes to do real scientific research, train more professional caregivers, and create a host of costly programs and resources to ease the burden on family caregivers.”