MUST READS

A February 22, 2017 Fox 13 segment reported on the latest work of Jasmine Roberts, who has been a science superstar since the age of 12, when she showed that ice cubes in fast food restaurants contained more bacteria than their toilet water. At the age of 16 she was an Alzheimer’s researcher, proving the connection between diabetes and AD. Now at the age of 23, she is applying to medical school, on track to achieve her dream of becoming Surgeon General.

A February 22, 2017 Atlantic article reported that the pharmaceutical industry is ‘questioning the amyloid hypothesis’ in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. All drugs targeting amyloid—including Merck’s verubecestat, Lilly’s solanezumab, and Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson’s bapineuzumab—have not worked so far. “There is mounting evidence that removing amyloid once people have established dementia is closing the barn door after the cows have left.” The A4 trial is testing a previously unsuccessful drug in patients with elevated amyloid levels, but no outward cognitive symptoms. Even if anti-amyloid drugs can’t reverse symptoms, perhaps they can prevent full-blown AD. The prevailing view in the field, said Dennis Selkoe (Harvard neurologist and leading AD researcher since the 1970’s), is still that dealing with amyloid can treat the disease. Goerge Perry (University of Texas at San Antonio neuroscientist) has declared the amyloid hypothesis 'dead.' “The government and the pharmaceutical industry have invested almost all their resources, and some of the brightest people have been in the amyloid area. Think about all that talent that has been invested and that so far as yielded zero therapeutic value,” said Perry.

DISPARITIES SPOTLIGHT

A February 8, 2017 Politico article reported on the push to recruit and include more minorities in clinical research studies. The US is an increasingly diverse country but minorities still make up a disproportionately low percentage of participants in clinical trials, even though in 1993, Congress passed a law requiring the National Institutes of Health to include more women and minorities. “You need to have diversity to study as much of the disease spectrum as possible — differences in exposures, in risk, in genetics, in social and cultural differences,” says Oh, Epidemiologist, University of California, San Francisco. The NIH Precision Medicine Initiative (“All Of Us”), is a research study enrolling at least 1 million Americans in a database containing DNA, life histories and hundreds of other measures, and aims to have 40% of volunteers be people of color. For the first two-thirds of the 20th century, scientists predominantly enrolled prisoners, the mentally ill and racial minorities in medical research. Participation in research was for the poor, while the drugs that came out of it were for the rich. Now the problem has shifted, from research exploiting the underclass to research over-emphasizing white and upper middle-class America. “What I really like about All of Us, in particular, is the emphasis on different types of diversity,” says Robert Winn, leading cancer researcher at the University of Illinois-Chicago. “It’s broad in scope in the best way in terms of getting all classes, races, ethnicity, regions, cultures and all levels of education and technology.”

REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES

A February 21, 2017 Texas Public Radio segment reported on the cost, challenge and time-consuming process of finding new drugs. It takes on average 15 years and billions of dollars to get a new treatment on the market. San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute is utilizing Rhodium software to address this problem, by harnessing the power of cell phone processing technology for bioscience research. The software creates three dimensional models of molecules in the body that are drug targets and the computer compares chemical compounds to the model. The technology will be used to find new treatments for viruses, resistant bacteria, and conditions like Alzheimer’s.

CAREGIVER CORNER

A February 21, 2017 Sunrise Senior Living blog offers advice to care partners of people living with dementia or memory loss who are preparing for surgery. First, familiarize yourself with the procedure, information about expected symptoms, complications, and the recovery process. A person with dementia will need support in making appropriate choices about treatment options leading up to a surgery, as well as following an operation. It further advises to coordinate follow-up with family members or other caregivers, including additional doctor appointments. Talk to the patient about their fears and anxieties. Additionally, patients may experience “post-operative cognitive dysfunction” — exhibiting delirium and other mental issues prior to or following a procedure — but these symptoms will quickly subside. They may become disoriented and confused, and undiagnosed dementia patients may struggle with surgery-related trauma. And lastly, have an emergency preparedness kit ready in case your loved one needs to go to the hospital unexpectedly.