In The News: Department of Brain Health

Drug Discovery News

In July 2022, a bombshell dropped on the Alzheimer's disease research field. For years, researchers had searched for something that caused the disease’s telltale amyloid plaques — complex tangles of a protein called amyloid-beta (Aβ) frequently found in the brains of patients with neurodegenerative disorders. A series of studies published starting in the mid-2000s reported the discovery of a toxic form of Aβ in the brains of mouse models of Alzheimer's disease called Aβ*56. Researchers hoped that Aβ*56 was the protein that snowballed into those amyloid plaques. But a team of sleuths found that many of the papers describing Aβ*56 were fraudulent and contained an array of faked images and blots. The fraud seemed to call the entire idea of amyloids causing Alzheimer’s disease into question.

Las Vegas Review Journal

A musical superstar has recruited a UNLV student for her effort to improve young people’s mental health. The Born This Way Foundation, co-founded in 2012 by Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, announced its new group of 31 advisory board members Tuesday, including Faria Tavacoli, a 20-year-old sophomore majoring in public health and minoring in neuroscience at UNLV.

United Press International

Predicting when new drugs come to market in the United States has never been an exact science, and it has become even harder since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts told UPI. But some drugs on the horizon have the potential to make a major impact.

Alzheimer's News Today

AB Science is initiating a Phase 3 trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of its candidate therapy masitinib in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

Streetwise Reports

Biopharmaceutical company Axsome Therapeutics Inc. (AXSM:NASDAQ), which is focused on developing new medicines for use in the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders, today announced that "AXS-05, a novel, oral, investigational NMDA receptor antagonist with multimodal activity, met the primary and key secondary endpoints in the ACCORD (Assessing Clinical Outcomes in Alzheimer's Disease Agitation) Phase 3 trial, by substantially and statistically significantly delaying the time to relapse and preventing relapse of agitation in patients with Alzheimer's disease, as compared to placebo."

Neurology Live

Newly announced findings from the phase 3 ACCORD trial (NCT04797715) showed that AXS-05 (Axsome Therapeutics), a novel, investigational n-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, met its primary end point of statistically significant delay in time to relapse and preventing relapse of agitation in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) agitation.1

Pledge Times

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder that leads to brain atrophy and death of its cells. It is the most common cause of dementia. It leads to a persistent decrease in the ability to think, and in behavioral and social skills; This limits a person’s ability to live independently.

Voice of America

Drugmakers Biogen and Eisai say their experimental drug lecanemab slowed the progress of Alzheimer’s disease in a large human study the companies did.

Reuters

An experimental Alzheimer's drug made by Eisai Co Ltd (4523.T) and Biogen (BIIB.O) slowed cognitive and functional decline in a large trial of patients in the early stages of the disease, they said on Tuesday, potentially a rare win in a field littered with failed drugs.

U.S. News & World Report

An experimental Alzheimer's drug made by Eisai Co Ltd and Biogen slowed cognitive and functional decline in a large trial of patients in the early stages of the disease, they said on Tuesday, potentially a rare win in a field littered with failed drugs.

Health Europa

NervGen is developing a novel drug candidate that could revolutionise treatment for conditions associated with central nervous system damage, including Alzheimer’s disease.

KNPR News

Right now, Nevada has the third-fastest rate of growth for Alzheimer’s disease. Between now and 2025, the number of Nevadans with dementia is expected to grow almost 31% from 49,000 to 64,000.