January 03, 2014

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

Banner Alzheimer's Institute Colombia research update, the need for greater collaboration in the pharmaceutical industry, the link between heart disease and dementia in older women (read more). 
 
 

Must reads

  • A January 2, 2014 Huffington Post piece by Dr. Pierre Tariot, director of the Banner Alzheimer's Institute, highlighted the institute's study of a large family in Colombia who carry a rare genetic mutation that increases their risk of early onset Alzheimer's. According to Dr. Tariot, "This is only the first step in a long journey and we know the stakes -- and the potential rewards -- are very high. More than 5 million Americans currently live with Alzheimer's and a new case is diagnosed approximately every 69 seconds. Nationally and globally, the disease is accelerating at an alarming rate. The fiscal threat to Medicare and Medicaid due to this burden of patients is extraordinary, in addition to the heartbreaking toll it takes on entire families around the world."
  • A January 2, 2014 Motley Fool article reported on the need for greater collaboration in the pharmaceutical industry. According to the article, "There is a parallel with Alzheimer's today. Alzheimer's, as we know, is a very difficult scientific challenge. The industry has spent well over $10 billion trying to crack that challenge, unsuccessfully. We keep throwing compounds at the disease, hoping it's going to work. We've thrown over 200 such treatments at the disease, unsuccessfully.One thing that we have not, is shared our experience with what works and what doesn't work, so that we can learn from each other's failures. Today, you have this paradoxical situation where a number of companies are pursuing treatments, pursuing targets, that have been abandoned by other companies after spending billions of dollars investigating the same targets. But because we don't have the sharing of that knowledge, we keep repeating our mistakes."
Research and science 
  • A January 2, 2014 Reuters article reported that "Older women with a history of heart trouble were more likely to develop thinking and memory problems than those without heart disease." According to the article, "Understanding the connection between heart disease and dementia is important because heart disease is reversible but Alzheimer's disease is not, O'Brien said."
  • More on the drop in US biomedical research funding. A January 2, 2014 UPI article reported "The United States no longer leads the world in biomedical research; it fell from 51 percent in 2007 to 45 percent in 2012, but Asia spent more, researchers say." Also reported on by US News & World Report, The Examiner, and Voice of America. 
Press release