December 13, 2017

Today’s Top Alzheimer’s News

USA2 SPOTLIGHT

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MUST READS

A December 13, 2017 Politico article looked at why current incentives in the drug development system in the United States have thus far failed to deliver a “magic pill” to cure Alzheimer’s disease. More than 350 drug candidates have been tried, but none have worked well in human trials and of the 20 most promising future drugs approaching market, none are aimed at AD. According to the article, “Scratch a little deeper, and the puzzles of Alzheimer's and diabetes begin to look as much like a policy challenge as a scientific one.”



A December 13, 2017 Politico article explored senolytic drugs, which could transform the experience of aging not by extending how long we live, but improving how well we live, including staving off ailments like heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s. The first anti-aging drug studies are getting underway, although as of now, “aging” isn’t considered a disease by the FDA.  According to Nir Barzilai of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, “Aging is not an indication, it’s not a disease, so health care providers won’t pay.” 



A December 12, 2017 Harvard Medical School article spotlighted Alzheimer’s expert Dr. Reisa Sperling of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who will co-lead the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC) funded by the NIH. The ACTC will create a network of 35 AD trial sites across the country to identify new ways to treat or prevent Alzheimer's, accelerate clinical trials including addressing the expense of recruitment and site activation, and implement more sensitive biomarkers and cognitive tests in early intervention trials. According to Sperling, “We must overhaul our current recruitment strategies for clinical trials, particularly to improve the diversity of our study participants and to reach people who do not yet have symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease for inclusion in future prevention trials.”


RESEARCH, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOY

According to a December 12, 2017 EurekAlert! public release, the European Commission published certified reference material to aid in early detection of Alzheimer's disease, and develop future medications. It calibrates diagnostic tools for amyloid-β 1-42, an AD biomarker found in cerebrospinal fluid, which begins to change up to 10 years before symptoms occur. "By putting this new instrument at the disposal of researchers and industry, we are making an important step to contain Alzheimer's disease one day, which destroys irreversibly the memory of affected people, and greatly diminishes their quality of life,” said Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Tibor Navracsics.


GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

A December 13, 2017 Al Arabiya English article looked at newly heightened awareness about Alzheimer’s disease in Saudi Arabia. According to Saudi Alzheimer’s Disease Association Health Educator Sara Al-Rasheed, “Many countries have exact statistics about the number of patients suffering from this disease, but in Saudi Arabia the case is different. Lack of information about its prevalence is because of the perception that its symptoms are only a natural part of aging, and some families refuse to accept it as a disease in itself.”