The Brain: Alzheimer's and dementia news and discussions

[Lilymoon]

Might a combination of 2 cancer drugs help treat Alzheimer's disease?

Researchers all over the world are actively seeking treatments or a cure for Alzheimer’s disease — a form of dementia currently impacting about 32 million people globally.

The medications used right now for Alzheimer’s disease are designed to only help treat symptoms and slow disease progression.

One avenue scientists are taking in an effort to find treatments for Alzheimer’s disease is by looking at currently-approved medications that are used for other diseases, an approach called drug repurposing.

“The idea of drug repurposing or identifying new uses for existing drugs, can speed up the drug discovery process because the compounds already have been tested for toxicity and adverse events,” Marina Sirota, PhD, professor and interim director of the University of California — San Francisco Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute explained to Medical News Today.

“Alzheimer’s disease is a complex disease, which is very difficult to treat so we need to use all the tools possible to speed up drug discovery and help patients,” said Sirota

Sirota is the co-senior author of a new study recently published in the journal Cell that has identified two cancer medications that may help overturn brain changes caused by Alzheimer’s disease, possibly slowing or even reversing the disease’s symptoms.

https://www.aol.com/might-combination-2 ... 00459.html

[Lilymoon]

New hope for Alzheimer’s: lithium supplement reverses memory loss in mice
Studies in rodents and humans suggest that low levels of the metal contribute to cognitive decline.

Replenishing the brain’s natural stores of lithium can protect against and even reverse Alzheimer’s disease, suggests a paper published1 today in Nature.

The paper reports that analyses of human brain tissue and a series of mouse experiments point to a consistent pattern: when lithium concentrations in the brain decline, memory loss tends to develop, as do neurological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease called amyloid plaques and tau tangles. The study also found evidence in mice that a specific type of lithium supplement undoes these neurological changes and rolls back memory loss, restoring the brain to a younger, healthier state.


https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02471-4

[Lilymoon]

Daily Walking Cuts Alzheimer's Risk in 10-Year Study of 3,000 Seniors
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medica ... i-AA1K9X76

[weatheriscool]

Cost-effective AI tool can predict markers of Alzheimer's disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08- ... eimer.html
by Boston University School of Medicine

Researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine have built an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can accurately predict key signs of Alzheimer's disease—such as the presence of sticky proteins called amyloid beta and tau—using common and less expensive tests like brain scans, memory checks and health records. The findings appear online in the journal Nature Communications.

"We used data from multiple international research cohorts, allowing us to predict the presence of these sticky proteins, and even checking specific brain areas," explains corresponding author Vijaya B. Kolachalama, Ph.D., FAHA, associate professor of medicine and computer science at Boston University.

While popular new blood tests can somewhat detect signs of Alzheimer's, they can't reveal exactly where in the brain the issues are occurring—unlike our AI tool, which provides important location-specific detail.

[weatheriscool]

New schizophrenia drug improves symptoms current drugs can’t touch
By Paul McClure
August 11, 2025

A novel drug, evenamide, quieted overactive brain circuits in an animal model of schizophrenia, improving memory, social interaction, and dopamine balance, offering hope for tackling symptoms that current antipsychotics can’t touch.

Schizophrenia causes a mix of positive (delusions, hallucinations), negative (social withdrawal, loss of pleasure) and cognitive (memory, decision-making) symptoms. For some people with schizophrenia, though, existing antipsychotic medications only treat positive symptoms. Still others develop treatment resistance.

A new drug, evenamide, has performed promisingly well in pre-clinical trials using animal models, improving positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia.

https://newatlas.com/medical/evenamide- ... ppocampus/

[weatheriscool]

First proof brain’s powerhouses drive – and can reverse – dementia symptoms
By Bronwyn Thompson
August 11, 2025

Just a few days after scientists announced we're at a pivotal tipping point in Alzheimer's disease research, a team has made a huge breakthrough, proving for the first time how mitochondrial dysfunction fuels neurodegenerative symptoms. Through this, they created a precision tool that restored memory function in several dementia models.

Researchers from France's Inserm and the University of Bordeaux, along with a team at Canada's Université de Moncton, have for the first time identified a causal link between mitochondrial dysfunction and the debilitating symptoms that emerge and worsen in neurodegenerative diseases.

Mitochondria – the energy-generating organelles within cells – are vital for brain function, supplying the power (ATP) needed for everything from neurotransmitter release to maintaining the "standby charge" of neurons so they can fire when required. In many neurological conditions, from Alzheimer’s disease to psychiatric disorders, mitochondrial energy production is impaired. But until now, it hasn't been clearly understood if dysfunctional mitochondria has been a driver of neurodgenerative symptoms or simply "collateral damage" from the progression of disease.

https://newatlas.com/brain/alzheimers-d ... -dementia/

[weatheriscool]

Magnetized pen detects Parkinson's disease in its earliest stages
By Ben Coxworth
August 12, 2025
https://newatlas.com/medical-devices/ma ... s-disease/

We've already seen a pen that helps people with Parkinson's disease to write clearly, but this one is a little different. By assessing its user's hand movements as they write, it can provide an early warning that they're developing the condition.

Currently being developed by Assoc. Prof. Jun Chen and colleagues at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the pen does contain ink, but it doesn't actually write. Instead, it detects tiny telltale hand movements produced by Parkinson's-related tremors, which might otherwise go unnoticed until the disease has progressed much further.

The magnetoelastic tip of the pen is composed of a soft silicone matrix with tiny magnetic particles embedded throughout it. Directly above that tip, within the pen's barrel, is a sealed reservoir filled with a ferrofluidic ink. Conductive yarn is coiled around the outside of the barrel, and covered with a soft polymer grip.

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

this news has allowed me to experience joy for the first time in days /hj

[zzz]

Discovery of the decade if true.

[firestar464]

Eh, I'd argue the antidepression headset is better; it's less invasive.

[weatheriscool]

New panic disorder drug could offer safe and effective long-term relief
By Bronwyn Thompson
August 25, 2025

This year a clinical trial will test a drug combination designed to bring lasting relief for people with panic disorder – a condition that can upend daily life and be notoriously difficult to treat. No new medications have been approved to treat the condition since 2003.

Scientists at the Mackay Institute of Research and Innovation (MIRI), the research arm of Mackay Hospital and Health Service, is currently recruiting patients aged 18-65 years who have been diagnosed with reoccurring panic attacks to take part in a clinical trial of a new oral medication – a combination of two existing drugs – that could effectively relieve symptoms without the risk of addiction that comes with many current therapeutics.

https://newatlas.com/mental-health/pani ... rug-trial/

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

f*ck him

[caltrek]

Brain’s Blood Flow Could Change How We Understand and Treat Alzheimer’s
August 25, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) Over seven million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the heartbreaking day-to-day battle with the effects of cognitive decline. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, the brain changes that cause the disease actually begin 20 years or more before symptoms start, highlighting the critical need for early and accurate diagnosis. However, current diagnostic tools involve painful spinal taps, expensive scans and cognitive tests that can be limited in their accuracy.

New research led by biomedical engineers at USC Viterbi School of Engineering has uncovered the key role the brain’s blood flow dynamics play in AD, offering a simpler, non-invasive diagnostic tool that could reshape decades of conventional thinking about how this debilitating disease is understood and treated. Led by Vasilis Marmarelis, Dean’s Professor in the Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, the work was published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring.

For years, the prevailing consensus in Alzheimer’s research and clinical care has been the “amyloid cascade hypothesis.” This theory suggests that a protein fragment called amyloid beta is the main culprit in Alzheimer’s. When too much amyloid beta builds up in the brain, it triggers the accumulation of another protein, Tau, that forms twisted clumps known as “tau tangles” within brain cells. These tangles are then thought to cause brain cells to malfunction and eventually die, leading to the cognitive decline seen in Alzheimer’s.

Current diagnostic methods largely revolve around detecting these amyloid and tau pathologies. This often requires uncomfortable and risky spinal taps to draw cerebrospinal fluid for analysis. More recently, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging, or “amyloid or tau PET,” emerged, where a radioactive tracer is injected to visualize amyloid plaques or tau tangles in the brain, a test that is so costly it is usually confined to academic research settings. Most recently, blood biomarkers that serve the same purpose show promise for the future.

Read more of the Eurekalert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1095857

For a technical presentation of study results as published in the Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring journal: https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wile ... ad2.70134

[weatheriscool]

FDA approves at-home Alzheimer's shot to effectively slow disease
By Bronwyn Thompson
September 02, 2025
https://newatlas.com/brain/alzheimers-d ... s-plaques/

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new version of an Alzheimer’s disease drug that can be given as a quick at-home weekly injection, offering patients a far more convenient option than lengthy infusion-center visits. It will be widely available from October 6, 2025.

Leqembi (lecanemab-irmb) was first approved in 2023 as an intravenous (IV) infusion for patients with early Alzheimer’s disease (AD), following study data showing that it could slow cognitive decline and help clear amyloid plaques. But the treatment is challenging and time-consuming. Following extensive trials, brain scans of participants showed that new shot version cleared sticky amyloid deposits even more effectively than the IV version, and came with far fewer incidence of "whole-body" reactions, making it safer and easier to tolerate.

[weatheriscool]

Blood test could streamline early Alzheimer's detection in underrepresented populations

by University of California - San Diego
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09- ... tions.html

In a landmark study of Hispanic and Latino adults, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified a link between self-reported cognitive decline and blood-based biomarkers, which could pave the way for a simple blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. This approach could be faster, less-invasive and more affordable than existing screening tools. The results are published in JAMA Network Open.

"We need ways to identify underlying neurodegenerative diseases earlier in patients with cognitive symptoms," said corresponding author Freddie Márquez, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine. "This study highlights the promise of blood-based biomarkers as a more accessible and scalable tool for understanding cognitive decline, particularly in populations that have been underserved by traditional methods."

There is currently only one blood test approved by the Food and Drug Administration to assist in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. While this test, the Lumipulse G pTau217/Aβ42 plasma ratio, can detect proteins associated with Alzheimer's in the blood, it is currently very expensive and only available in specialized care settings. Whether or not blood can be reliably used for early Alzheimer's detection on a larger scale is still unknown.

[firestar464]

New insights into the epigenetic processes via which neuroinflammation causes memory loss

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09- ... -loss.html

[firestar464]