There’s no clinical test for Alzheimer’s disease, so physicians diagnose it by conducting assessments of patients’ cognitive decline. But it’s particularly difficult for them to identify mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an early stage of dementia when symptoms are less obvious. And it’s even harder to predict which MCI patients will develop Alzheimer’s disease (not all of them do).
In order to accurately diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, medical professionals must conduct a long series of tests to assess a patient’s memory impairment, cognitive skills, functional abilities, and behavioral changes. The process also includes costly brain imagining scans and, in some cases, invasive cerebral spinal fluid tests to rule out other diseases.
The world may have just gotten an early warning alarm for Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers in Sweden have uncovered changes in the brain that foretell the development of the brain disorder up to two decades before symptoms occur.
A team at the Karolinska Institute watched brain cells called astrocytes, which protect and support the information-carrying neurons, increase in number years before people genetically predisposed to the disease showed any symptoms. Researchers believe this phenomenon is the body’s inflammatory response to the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s, a form of dementia in which protein fragments called amyloid clump together in plaques that damage brain tissue.
La biotecnológica Oryzon, cotizada en el mercado continuo desde el lunes, ha solicitado a la autoridad sanitaria comenzar con los ensayos clínicos de un fármaco de investigación propia contra el alzhéimer.
La compañía biotecnológica catalana Oryzon, cotizada en el mercado continuo desde este lunes, avanzó ayer que ha presentado una solicitud en la Agencia Española del Medicamento para llevar a cabo un ensayo clínico de fase I para su fármaco llamado Ory-2001. En esta primera etapa se mide la seguridad del medicamento en humanos.
Roughly 5.3 million Americans are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and every 67 seconds someone in the US develops the disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. It is among the 10 leading causes of death but at this time, the medical community has found no way to prevent, cure, or even slow it.
That’s why some scientists say it might be time to look at Alzheimer’s differently. Deciphering the mechanism that underlies the development of Alzheimer’s disease in certain families but not in others, researchers at the Hebrew University have proposed that the malady is actually a collection of several diseases that should be classified and treated separately – with a variety of different approaches.
Picture this: A global business magazine features a close-up head-shot of a 30-year-old male on its cover.
He’s of Indian descent, with an American upbringing and education, and he’s just concocted a multi-million dollar business out of thin air.
He’s lauded for his vision, his savvy and his striking intelligence with things both financial and technical.
Now picture this: He’s thousands of miles from Silicon Valley. He hasn’t created an app and he’s not selling the next-big-thing to millennials in San Francisco or Shanghai.
El alzhéimer aparece de forma espontánea o por predisposición genética, pero un grupo de investigadores ha descubierto que la proteína beta-amiloide, asociada con la enfermedad, puede transmitirse durante ciertos procedimientos médicos por la contaminación de instrumentos quirúrgicos.
The earlier Alzheimer’s disease is treated, the better. Maybe even before symptoms arise. That’s the idea behind experimental drugs designed to remove plaques from the brain and prevent cognitive changes.
Today in Washington, both Eli Lilly and Biogen presented new data suggesting that antibodies designed to break up or clear the beta-amyloid plaques can slow the advancement of Alzheimer’s, particularly in patients with the mildest form of the disease.
Drug developer vTv Therapeutics is moving forward with its plans for a public stock offering to support late-stage clinical development of its Alzheimer’s disease drug.
The High Point, NC-based company on Monday set terms for its IPO, proposing to offer 7.8 million shares in the range of $15 to $17 per share. At the midpoint, vTv would raise $125 million. The company has applied to trade on the Nasdaq under the stock symbol “VTVT.”
Despite the billions of dollars poured into Alzheimer’s disease research, the disorder remains a biological riddle with no cure. That’s why even hints of progress—encouraging signs in early studies, for example—garner so much attention. And that’s why an update from an experimental drug from Biogen is front and center this morning.
