Alzheimer's drug gets FDA panel's backing, setting the stage for broader use
Source: AP
By MATTHEW PERRONE today
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health advisers on Friday unanimously backed the full approval of a closely watched Alzheimer’s drug, a key step toward opening insurance coverage to U.S. seniors with early stages of the brain-robbing disease.
The drug, Leqembi, received conditional approval from the Food and Drug Administration in January based on early results suggesting it could slow Alzheimer’s progression by several months. The FDA now is reviewing more definitive results to decide whether the drug should receive the agency’s full endorsement.
The decision carries extra significance because insurers have held off on paying for the infused treatment until it has full FDA approval.
The FDA panel of outside advisers voted 6-0 that a large company study confirmed the drug’s benefits for patients with mild or early Alzheimer’s. The nonbinding vote amounts to a recommendation for full approval, and the FDA is scheduled to issue a final decision on the matter by July 6.
Have you ever felt the strong sensation that someone is behind you, so intense that you turn around, only to see that no-one is there? This is a "presence hallucination." Presence hallucinations are particularly frequent but under reported in patients with Parkinson's disease and may appear early on in the course of the disease. They are sometimes ignored by the patient, by clinicians, or brushed off as a simple side-effect of medication.
Now, EPFL scientists have found that patients recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and who have early hallucinations are at greater risk of faster cognitive decline. The results are published in Nature Mental Health.
"We now know that early hallucinations are to be taken seriously in Parkinson's disease," says Olaf Blanke, Bertarelli Chair in Cognitive Neuroprosthetics, who leads EPFL's Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience. "If you have Parkinson's disease and experience hallucinations, even minor ones, then you should share this information with your doctor as soon as possible," explains Fosco Bernasconi of EPFL's Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and lead author of the study. "So far, we only have evidence linking cognitive decline and early hallucinations for Parkinson's disease, but it could also be valid for other neurodegenerative diseases."
FDA approves Alzheimer's drug Leqembi, paving way for broader Medicare coverage
Source: CNBC
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the Alzheimer’s treatment Leqembi, a pivotal decision that is expected to expand access to the expensive drug for older Americans.
Medicare has promised to start covering Leqembi, with some conditions, on the same day the FDA approves the antibody treatment. Leqembi is made by Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai and its Cambridge, Massachusetts, partner, Biogen.
Leqembi is the first Alzheimer’s antibody treatment to receive full FDA approval. It is also the first such drug that is expected to receive broad coverage through Medicare.
Medicare coverage is a crucial step to help older Americans with early Alzheimer’s disease pay for the treatment. With a median income of about $30,000, most people on Medicare cannot afford the $26,500 annual price of Leqembi set by Eisai without insurance coverage.
Scientists from Scripps Research and Cardiff University have made key discoveries in support of a new stem cell-based therapy for Parkinson's disease. The approach, called an autologous therapy, uses induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)—made from a patient's own skin or blood cells—to replace the neurons in the brain that are lost in Parkinson's. Transplants of a person's own cells eliminates the need for immunosuppression.
In a new study, the researchers used iPSCs made from the skin cells of two people with Parkinson's disease to make young neurons that were successfully transplanted into a rat model with the disease. They used the animal model to pinpoint exactly at what stage of development the iPSC-derived neurons should be transplanted to become mature neurons that can reverse signs of disease in the rat brai
A new study has found that a substance extracted from the leaves of the hydrangea plant could be an effective treatment against the protein plaques that are thought to contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Much recent research has concentrated on developing treatments to slow or reverse Alzheimer’s disease (AD). With studies suggesting a link between brain plaques caused by the aggregation of amyloid beta protein and cognitive decline, many potential treatments have focused on addressing this particular brain pathology.
Now, researchers from Sahmyook University, South Korea, have found that a naturally occurring substance found in hydrangea leaves shows great promise in treating the amyloid beta plaques thought to contribute to AD.
Popular Bodybuilding Supplement Might Help Slow Cognitive Decline
A study involving mice found that HMB, a muscle growth and performance-enhancing supplement, boosts hippocampus health and reduces plaques between neurons.
By Adrianna Nine August 2, 2023 https://www.extremetech.com/science/pop ... ve-decline
A common bodybuilding supplement, HMB, might do more than help with those gains. In a collaborative study between Nevada’s Simmaron Research Institute and Rush University in Illinois, researchers found that beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate slows cognitive decline in mice. If the same benefit extends to humans, the supplement could help aging adults stave off dementia.
In a paper published in the journal Cell Reports, a team of neurologists writes that HMB—typically used by athletes to boost performance and muscle growth—binds with PPAR-alpha, a nuclear hormone receptor in the brain's hippocampus region. Responsible for energy homeostasis, PPAR-alpha regulates how fats are metabolized. This process is vital to its newly-discovered role in slowing cognitive decline.
People with Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive losses have shown low levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNFs), a protein essential to the hippocampus’s function. Because the hippocampus is responsible for memory formation and retrieval, a relative lack of BDNFs is believed to impact a person’s ability to recall long-term memories, keep track of their belongings, or perform other cognitive tasks many take for granted. But HMB appears to help replenish the BDNF supplies that people with Alzheimer’s lack.
New research led by scientists working with Georgia State University's TReNDS Center has identified age-related changes in brain patterns associated with the risk for developing schizophrenia.
The discovery could help clinicians identify the risk for developing mental illness earlier and improve treatment options. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research is part of a collaboration by experts from the University of Bari Aldo Moro, the Lieber Institute of Brain Development and the Tri-institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS) based at Georgia State University.
The study used new analytic approaches developed at the TReNDS center. Researchers used a hybrid, data-driven method called Neuromark to extract reliable brain networks from the neuroimaging data which were then further analyzed in the study.
Researchers started with functional MRI scans (fMRI) to detect age-related changes in brain connectivity and their association with schizophrenia risk. The research identified high-risk individuals for developing psychosis during late adolescence and early adulthood.
Groundbreaking new research has uncovered a potential route to developing the first ever drug treatments for vascular dementia, that directly target a cause of the condition. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has shed light on how high blood pressure causes changes to arteries in the brain, a process that leads to the devastating condition.
High blood pressure is a main cause of vascular dementia, a condition characterized by poor blood flow to the brain. The reduced blood supply starves brain cells of nutrients and over time they become damaged and die. Symptoms of vascular dementia include loss of energy, lack of concentration and poor memory.
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, working with technology company Faculty AI, have shown that machine learning can accurately predict subtypes of Parkinson's disease using images of patient-derived stem cells.
Their work, published in Nature Machine Intelligence, has shown that computer models can accurately classify four subtypes of Parkinson's disease, with one reaching an accuracy of 95%. This could pave the way for personalized medicine and targeted drug discovery.
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative condition impacting movement and cognition. Symptoms and disease progression vary from person to person due to differences in the underlying mechanisms causing the disease.
Until now there hasn't been a way to accurately differentiate subtypes, which means people are given nonspecific diagnoses and don't always have access to targeted treatments, support or care.
