Around 900,000 people in the UK are affected by the progressive neurodegenerative disease Researchers from University College London (UCL), in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, have revealed that impaired spatial navigation could determine the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) before the onset of symptoms. Published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, researchers used virtual reality (VR) to test the spatial navigation of 100 asymptomatic adults from the PREVENT-Dementia study. Affecting around 900.000 people in the UK, AD is a neurodegenerative disorder that progressively destroys memory, thinking skills and the ability to carry out simple day-to-day tasks. Researchers recruited adults aged between 43 and 66 years who had a hereditary or physiological risk of AD related to either the APOE-ε4 allele gene, a family history of AD or lifestyle risk factors, including low levels of physical activity, who were around 25 years younger than their estimated ...
Alzheimer’s disease, which traditionally requires costly scans or invasive spinal taps for diagnosis, is now closer to being more easily identified through innovative blood tests. This advancement is particularly crucial with the recent approval of disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s. Now, the results of a study have shown how new Alzheimer’s detecting blood tests perform across a broad range of races and ethnicities for the first time. The Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation (GAP, Washington, DC, USA) is releasing the first results from the Bio-Hermes-001 Study. To address diagnostic challenges in Alzheimer’s disease, GAP formed a unique coalition of top biopharma, digital technology firms, nonprofit partners, and 17 clinical research sites from the GAP network (GAP-Net) across the US for the Bio-Hermes study. Conducted with over 1,000 participants from various US communities, the study compared blood and digital biomarker results with brain amyloid PET scans and cerebrospinal fluid assays. The study found ...
Historically, Alzheimer’s disease was primarily diagnosed based on observable symptoms, particularly when individuals started exhibiting memory and cognitive difficulties. However, it’s been revealed through research that up to a third of individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s based solely on cognitive symptoms have been incorrectly diagnosed, with their symptoms stemming from other causes. The accurate identification of Alzheimer’s disease has become increasingly crucial, especially since the introduction of the first treatments that can slow the disease’s progression, along with other promising drugs currently in development. These treatments are potentially more effective when administered early, highlighting the need for early detection of the disease. Therefore, to qualify for Alzheimer’s therapies, patients must show cognitive impairment and test positive for amyloid plaques, which are distinctive to Alzheimer’s. Techniques like amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) brain scans, cerebrospinal fluid analyses, and blood tests are used to detect brain amyloid plaques. However, these are only employed ...
People with early Alzheimer’s disease have difficulty turning when walking, according to a new study using virtual reality led by UCL researchers. The study, published in Current Biology, used a computational model to further explore the intricacies of navigational errors previously observed in Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers, led by Professor Neil Burgess and colleagues in the Space and Memory group* at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, grouped participants into three categories: healthy younger participants (31 total), healthy elderly participants (36 total) and patients with mild cognitive impairment (43 total). They then asked them to complete a task while wearing virtual reality goggles, which allowed them to make real movements. In the trial, participants walked an outbound route guided by numbered cones, consisting of two straight legs connected by a turn. They then had to return to their starting position unguided. The task was performed under three different environmental conditions aimed ...
Eisai and BioArctic have received approval for the Alzheimer’s disease drug Leqembi (lecanemab-irmb) in Japan, making it the second country to gain access to the treatment. Leqembi is a monoclonal antibody that targets and reduces insoluble amyloid-beta (Aβ) forms in the brain. It is the first and only approved treatment that has demonstrated a reduction in the rate of disease progression in patients with Alzheimer’s. The Japanese approval unlocked a milestone-based payment of EUR 17m ($18m) to BioArctic. The approval is based on Phase III data from the Clarity AD trial (NCT03887455) led by Eisai that showed that treatment with Leqembi reduced clinical decline in patients by 27% at 18 months compared to the placebo. The prescribing information for Leqembi includes a warning for amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIAs), a concern for Alzheimer’s patients taking certain medication. Last week, BrainScope announced an investment from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) to ...
Scientists from the UK’s Dementia Research Institute at University College London (UCL) and VIB-KU Leuven have discovered the cause of the death of neurons in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), opening up potential avenues to develop new treatments for the condition. The researchers found that a programmed form of cell death, known as necroptosis, is initiated when neurons are exposed to amyloid plaques and tau tangles. The researchers created a new model to replicate and connect AD hallmark features – amyloid plaques, tau tangles, and death of neurons – by implanting both healthy human and mouse neurons into the brains of AD mouse models. They discovered that only human neurons displayed Alzheimer’s features, including tau tangles and neuronal cell loss. These findings suggest that humans have specific factors that play in Alzheimer’s that standard mouse models cannot replicate, as their neurons are more resilient to amyloid pathology. Upon further research, the team ...
By Tristan Manalac Pictured: Illustration of amyloid oligomers/iStock, selvanegra A follow-on analysis of a landmark Phase IIb/III study showed that Anavex Life Sciences’ investigational drug blarcamesine significantly slowed down cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, the company announced Thursday. At 48 weeks, the change in the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale version 13 (ADAS-Cog13) scores in blarcamesine-treated patients was significantly better than placebo comparators. Blarcamesine was likewise significantly better than placebo when cognition was evaluated using the Clinical Dementia Rating scale Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) scale, according to Anavex’s news release. The company bolstered these clinical findings with biomarker data, which showed that blarcamesine treatment resulted in a significant drop in pathological amyloid beta levels and a corresponding improvement in Aβ42/40 ratio, pointing to the molecule’s strong anti-amyloid potential. Anavex’s drug candidate also resulted in lower brain volume loss versus placebo. When it came to safety, the most common ...
By Claire Jarvis Pictured: Close-up of an arm receiving a blood draw/iStock, montiannoowong Prior to the approval of effective therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, there was little need for biomarker tests. Now, with Eisai and Biogen’s anti-amyloid drug Leqembi on the market and approval of Eli Lilly’s donanemab expected to follow soon, the pipeline of Alzheimer’s drugs is expanding and the development of tests to detect the disease is accelerating. With Leqembi’s full approval, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has instituted broader coverage of the drug—with stipulations. To ensure reimbursement, physicians must participate in a qualified registry and patients must be diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimer’s disease dementia with evidence of beta-amyloid deposits. To help facilitate this, CMS proposed in July 2023 to increase its coverage of PET scans to detect these amyloid plaques—however, cheaper and faster diagnostic methods are still being developed. The past ...
By Tristan Manalac Monday, Quest Diagnostics launched the AD-Detect Test, a direct-to-consumer blood test designed to catch abnormal levels of the beta-amyloid protein to assess a patient’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. According to Quest, AD-Detect is the first direct-to-consumer blood-based biomarker test for Alzheimer’s disease, though the company is quick to point out that it is not a diagnostic test. “Only a physician or healthcare professional can provide an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis,” the company said in its announcement. “The risk of having Alzheimer’s disease as the underlying cause for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia should be considered in conjunction with the findings from medical and family history, physicals, nutritional deficiency biomarkers, neurological and neuropsychological examinations, and neuroimaging,” according to Quest. AD-Detect works by measuring two types of beta-amyloid biomarkers in the blood and determining the beta-amyloid 42/40 ratio, a validated tool used to assess a patient’s risk of ...
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals’ investigational RNAi therapeutic has shown promise in patients with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, according to phase 1 results presented by the company at this year’s Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC). Interim results from the early-stage study showed that a single injection of ALN-APP, which is designed to switch off the production of amyloid precursor protein (APP) in the central nervous system, was able to rapidly reduce levels of the protein, with clinical effect sustained over six months. ALN-APP is being developed in collaboration with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for both Alzheimer’s disease and the related disorder cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and is now the first investigational RNAi therapeutic to demonstrate gene silencing in the human brain. “We’ve known for decades that mutations that increase APP production, or alter its proteolysis, cause early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, early-onset CAA or both,” said Dr Sharon Cohen, neurologist and medical director, Toronto ...
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