Investigators have functionally linked the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk gene SORL1 to apolipoprotein E (ApoE) and clusterin, another apolipoprotein. The work, Tracy Young-Pearse told BioWorld, is part of an attempt to “try to understand different subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease.” It maps some of what Young-Pearse termed the “many molecular roads that lead to Alzheimer’s” – which, in turn, is the first step to setting up roadblocks. Young-Pearse is an associate professor in the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and co-leader of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute’s Nervous System Diseases Program. She is also the senior author of the paper describing the findings, which appeared online in Cell Reports on Aug. 22, 2023.

17-β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 10 (17-β-HSD10) catalyzes the turnover of steroids and neurosteroids, among other substrates, and is also a structural component of RNase P. 17-β-HSD10 is involved in the development of several pathologies, and considered a potential drug target for Alzheimer’s disease and some hormone-dependent cancers. A few 17-β-HSD10 inhibitors with either pyrazole, steroids, or benzothiazolylurea structure have been previously developed.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed to terminate the coverage with evidence development requirement for the use of positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging for patients suspected of suffering from beta amyloids, a marker of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, CMS is also considering a removal of the coverage policy that limits each patient to a single PET scan per lifetime, although the proposal to allow Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) to determine coverage is drawing fire from industry and physician groups alike.

The role of the enzyme γ-secretase in neuronal cholesterol metabolism could have a beneficial effect on the synapse that has not yet been explored in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). On Aug. 4, 2023, scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute published a study online in Neuron that linked cholesterol levels in the brain to synaptic dysfunction in AD.

With more drugs for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) gaining FDA approval and an aging population at increased risk of dementia, the need for AD diagnostics is only going to grow. An estimated 6.7 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s today, with that number projected to hit 14 million by 2060, according to the CDC.

Protein quality control research is “almost exclusively focused on heat shock proteins, which are ubiquitously present” up and down the evolutionary chain, Xiaolu Yang told BioWorld. But “for more sophisticated organisms, which we humans like to think we are, it’s a little odd that we still use the system that bacteria started with…. It seems like we should have something more. The TRIM system,” he added, “fills that gap.”

Viage Therapeutics Inc. – formerly Digestome Therapeutics Inc. – on July 26 unveiled positive data from its phase I study on DGX-001 for mild cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s (PD). The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study demonstrated changes in brain activity according to quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) measurements in 68 healthy volunteers dosed with single ascending and multiple ascending doses.

Protein quality control research is “almost exclusively focused on heat shock proteins, which are ubiquitously present” up and down the evolutionary chain, Xiaolu Yang told BioWorld. But “for more sophisticated organisms, which we humans like to think we are, it’s a little odd that we still use the system that bacteria started with…. It seems like we should have something more. The TRIM system,” he added, “fills that gap.”

TRIMs or tripartite motif proteins are a group of quality control proteins that are found only in animals. One of their functions is to add ubiquitin tags to proteins, marking them for transport to the proteasome system. TRIMs are part of the innate antiviral defense system. But in the July 27, 2023, issue of Science, Yang, who is a professor of cancer biology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and his colleagues reported that TRIM11 interacts with tau protein in multiple ways that were beneficial in preventing tauopathies.

In the second-biggest M&A deal so far in 2023, Biogen Inc. plans to acquire Reata Pharmaceuticals Inc. for an enterprise value of about $7.3 billion.

The identification of new targets in diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s – conditions which continue to have significant unmet needs – has taken a small step forward as one company, Violet Therapeutics Inc., plans to put $10.6 million in seed funding toward building out a pipeline based on technologies that elucidate the way cells interact amongst one another.