Noninvasive electrical stimulation of the brain for 20 minutes per session over four days has been demonstrated to improve both working- and long-term memory for at least one month, in people ages 65 to 88.
A fusion protein removed beta-amyloid plaque without producing the neurotoxic inflammation associated with other treatments, such as aducanumab immunotherapy. It is based on the alphaA Beta-Gas6 fusion protein developed in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease by a team of researchers at The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea.
Central nervous system specialist Cerevance Inc. has announced a multiyear strategic research collaboration with Merck & Co. Inc. to identify novel targets for Alzheimer’s disease in a deal worth more than $1.1 billion, plus royalties. Boston-based Cerevance will receive $25 million up front with the $1.1 billion due when certain development and commercial milestones are achieved.
Data on C2N Diagnostic LLC’s new blood test combining a proprietary p-tau217 measurement with the amyloid beta (a-beta) 42/40 ratio, a component of C2N’s commercially available PrecivityAD blood test, could help to predict people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) – even at the earliest stages.
Spintech MRI Inc. raised $6.5 million in series A financing to expand deployment of MRI software designed to improve and accelerate diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases. The FDA-cleared Strategically Acquired Gradient Echo (Stage) platform is currently in use at more than 50 U.S. hospitals and institutions, including the Yale School of Medicine for advanced research, analysis and treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
Cognetivity Neurosciences Ltd. is making progress in promoting its cognitive assessment tool as the brain health equivalent of a blood pressure check, following feedback from clinicians indicating the test could have broad applicability.
Beta-site APP-cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) inhibitors have a long history of failure in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Clinical development of verubecestat, elenbecestat, lanabecestat, umibecestat, atabecestat and LY-3202626 were all discontinued. The drugs largely showed that inhibiting BACE1 reduced amyloid beta (AB) in both cerebrospinal fluid and plasma, reduced AB plaques on PET scans and reduced phosphorylated tau. Unfortunately, patients had early cognitive worsening, and there were signs of lowering of brain volume and increases in psychiatric adverse events.
Researchers have discovered how the tau protein turns from a normal to a disease state in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and have shown how the discovery could potentially deliver a therapeutic target.
Investigators at the Weizmann Institute of Science have identified changes in oligodendrocytes that were shared across multiple dementia types. The team reported its results in the June 27, 2022, online issue of NatureNeuroscience.
Connections, Susan Greenfield told her audience at the 2022 Annual Conference of the European Academy of Neurology, are what the mind is all about. "When you are born, you are born with a fair amount of neurons," she said at the conference's opening plenary on Sunday. But "what characterizes the growth of the brain postnatally is the configurations of connections."
