Must reads

• A February 13, 2014 Daily Finance article reported on the prospects of AstraZeneca's Alzheimer's drug AZD3293. According to the article, "Of greater interest to the market is the progress of the company's experimental Alzheimer's disease drug, AZD3293, which recently moved into late-stage, phase 3 clinical testing. Alzheimer's patients still don't have a go-to treatment for their condition, so it's expected that the first pharmaceutical company to develop a suitable treatment for the disease could have a breakthrough product on their hands. So far, developing a treatment for Alzheimer's disease has proved to be daunting. Researchers have encountered numerous problems with the toxicity of some of the drugs under development....AZD3293 is a BACE inhibitor that targets a form of protein buildup in brain cells, known as amyloid plaques, that interfere with brain cell function and the ability of those cells to relay information. Competition is fairly brisk in this area of research, with the likes of Merck & Co and Roche Holding AG also involved in finding a cure."
• A February 13, 2014 Dallas Morning News article profiled one family's struggles with early-onset Alzheimer's. According to the article, "She says their romantic beginnings are something you might read in one of those sappy Harlequin novels. But like many too-good-to-be true love stories, Kam and Jason’s life took a cruel turn last fall. At 37 years old, Jason was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease…Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease means you start showing symptoms in your 60s, maybe 50s. Not in your 30s, with no trace of family history or genetic predisposition. Jason’s case makes doctors shake their heads.“We knew something was wrong; we just didn’t know what it was,” said Kam Manthe, who teaches third grade at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church and School in Dallas. “Jason had to quit working. He wasn’t able to drive anymore. We knew there was some sort of memory, cognitive-processing issue, but they just couldn’t figure it out.”"