Latest On Alzheimer’s Disease

Jake Heinrichs, a 50-year-old New York City resident, inherited a gene associated with Alzheimer’s, a memory-robbing brain disease that claimed the lives of his father and brother at around the same age.

Knowing what may await him, Heinrichs signed up for a clinical trial to test an experimental anti-amyloid drug on people in their 40s or 50s who are genetically destined to inherit Alzheimer’s disease.

The study, published in The Lancet Neurology journal, involved 73 people with rare, inherited genetic mutations that cause the overproduction of the protein amyloid in the brain.

Scientists believe that amyloid forms toxic plaques around brain cells. As plaques impact the brain, there is also a reduction in chemical messengers known as neurotransmitters, which play a role in transmitting messages between brain cells. Studies suggest that removing plaques or stopping their formation can help prevent the development of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms.

Of the 73 participants involved in the clinical drug trial when it began, 22 people who did not have cognitive problems received the anti-amyloid drug for the longest time—an average of eight years. The treatment lowered their risk of developing symptoms by half.

“We don’t yet know how long they will remain symptom-free—maybe a few years or maybe decades,” Dr. Randall Batement, the study’s senior author and a professor of neurology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, told The Independent. “In order to give them the best opportunity to stay cognitively normal, we have continued treatment with another anti-amyloid antibody in hopes they will never develop symptoms at all.”

The study results show that “it’s possible at least to delay the onset of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and give people more years of healthy life,” Dr. Batement said.

The study results suggest that similar treatments targeting more common forms of Alzheimer’s disease, which affect people 60 years old and older, may also be effective. The results also provide new evidence supporting the theory that amyloid protein contributes to Alzheimer’s disease.

Heinrichs has been part of the study for over a decade and remains symptom-free.
“It’s still a study but it has given me an extension to my life that I never banked on having,” Heinrichs told The Associated Press.

New Blood Tests Can Better Detect Alzheimer’s Disease

Researchers have been developing specific blood tests as a less invasive and time-consuming way to determine whether a person has Alzheimer’s or is at risk for the disease.

In one ongoing preventive neurology study, called the Biorepository Study for Neurodegenerative Diseases (BioRAND), researchers are analyzing blood biomarkers from 54 participants to diagnose and track the progression of early dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers are also examining the effectiveness of personalized lifestyle recommendations provided to participants to modify the disease’s progression.

Penny Ashford, whose father was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s when he was 62, is enrolled in the BioRAND study and reports seeing results already. Ashford, 61, was afraid that she was developing Alzheimer’s in her late 50s when she began struggling to find words.

“I couldn’t tell a story. I couldn’t get my words out,” Ashford told CNN. “I remember sitting at a dinner party one time, and I couldn’t finish my thoughts. It was the most unbelievable moment.”

During the BioRAND study, Ashford received advice on lifestyle changes, which she followed. Ashford began exercising, switched to a plant-based Mediterranean-style diet, and lost weight. Under a doctor’s supervision, she added supplements and vitamins to boost energy and lower stress.
A year later, Ashford’s blood biomarkers, particularly the ones for Alzheimer’s disease, dropped significantly.

“It’s huge, huge,” she told CNN. “I’m so proud of myself. And each success that I have empowers me to do more, keep going and not let up. I look back at my dad. He didn’t have any of these options. I watched my dad deteriorate, and I thank God, I am so lucky. We are so lucky.”

Dr. Richard Isaacson, the senior study author and founder of one of the first Alzheimer’s prevention clinics in the United States, hopes that one day, people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond “will get a baseline test to evaluate risk and help track progress over time—similar to how traditional cholesterol tests are used today.”

“Our eventual goal is to offer a blood panel at cost to help democratize access and broaden the ability for people to receive care,” Dr. Isaacson told CNN.

In a separate but similar study, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Lund University in Sweden have developed a new blood test that can determine how far Alzheimer’s has progressed. Researchers say that knowing the clinical stage of dementia helps patients receive the most effective treatment.

The new blood test could also help confirm whether an individual’s symptoms are caused by Alzheimer’s or another condition.

Neuroscientist Says Removing Brain Waste Can Prevent Dementia

Did you know that the brain has a waste removal system that operates much like cleaning up a house? What’s even more interesting is that this system may help prevent dementia.

Researchers have discovered a treatment for cognitive decline that involves clearing out “brain waste” much more efficiently than the body does on its own. However, neuroscientist Ian M. McDonough noted that the research is so new that effective procedures for clearing brain waste in humans have not yet been developed.

“If we could clear waste in the brain, pathology would never have a chance to clump and damage neurons and therefore, cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease would not occur (and no Alzheimer’s diagnosis would occur either),” McDonough, an associate professor of psychology at Binghamton University in New York, told the DailyMail.com.

According to McDonough, the brain has special systems, such as the microglia (which serve as the brain’s cleanup crew), and networks like the glymphatic and lymphatic systems, that work together to help remove waste.

“During sleep, the glymphatic system becomes especially active, flushing out the unwanted materials to keep your brain clean and healthy, much like a nightly cleanup that prevents buildup and potential damage,” McDonough said.

As you age, these systems slow down.

A team of researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis was able to improve memory in older mice by enhancing the function of their lymphatic vessels.

McDonough explained that the research on aging mice has shown that regular aerobic exercise can enhance the function of the glymphatic system (the brain’s cleaning network) by improving blood flow and arterial pulsation.

Until more research is conducted on humans, studies suggest that there are other ways to slow down or prevent dementia, including lifestyle changes, such as:

Reducing the likelihood of diabetes also helps in preventing dementia.

Source Links:

https://apnews.com/article/alzheimers-treatment-prevention-amyloid-trump-0e824790486e06bcfbd5711df4abf0ba
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/drug-reduced-risk-earlyonset-alzheimer-s-b2718568.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/amazing-reduction-alzheimer-risk-verified-000035353.html
https://www.foxnews.com/health/new-blood-test-diagnoses-alzheimers-disease-measures-how-far-progressed
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14560527/neuroscientist-remove-brain-waste-prevent-dementia-age.html