Articles related to ALZHEIMER'S/DEMENTIA

On September 20, 2022, Alzheon Inc. announced promising results from its phase 2 trial of oral ALZ-801 (valiltramiprosate) in patients with early AD. The drug decreased p-tau181 levels, reduced brain atrophy, and improved cognitive skills in the trial.

The TRAILBLAZER-ALZ Randomized Clinical Trial According to the findings of post-hoc analysis for patients who received donanemab treatment, baseline amyloid levels were directly related to the extent of amyloid reduction and inversely related to the likelihood of obtaining total amyloid clearance. In patients with complete amyloid clearance and in brain areas discovered later in the pathologic sequence, the donanemab-induced slowing of tau was more severe. To support the aforementioned findings, data from additional trials would be crucial, particularly information on treatment response according to APOE ε4 status.

The optimal dose of daily steps—the amount with the greatest dementia risk reduction—was 9,826 steps, with the minimum step dose, or the amount at which dementia risk was half of the maximal reduction, was 3,826 steps per day. See the original article on JAMA Neurology.

Among 150 people ages 65 to 88, investigational transcranial alternating current stimulation for 20 minutes over 4 consecutive days produced selective improvements in working and long-term memory in older adults that lasted for at least a month The rate of memory improvement over 4 days predicted the size of memory benefits 1 month later, the researchers found. Moreover, people with lower baseline cognitive function experienced larger and longer lasting memory improvements. “We found that by applying extremely weak electrical current safely and noninvasively to the prefrontal cortex at a high frequency, we could selectively improve long-term memory in older people aged 65 to 88 years old without changing short-term memory.” Robert Reinhart, PhD, Boston University in Nature Neuroscience

The disappointing findings from the $100 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) project, the first-ever prevention trial for Alzheimer’s disease, which tested an antiamyloid monoclonal antibody called crenezumab in people with the Paisa mutation, the most common cause of familial, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

This study enrolled individuals with AD who had been on a stable dose of donezepil forat least 90 days. They were then treated for 12 weeks with the addition of themodulator of cholinergic neurotransmission AD101, or placebo. Those receiving AD101had mean improvement of approximately 2 points on the Alzheimer DiseaseAssessment Scale-Cognitive (ADAS-Cog) Subscale. Individuals who had continued donezepil plusplacebo showed declines on ADAS-Cog.