Alzheimer’s Outlook 2015
An exclusive forum on Alzheimer’s diagnosis and treatment — where a panel of leading experts shares what’s new, what’s ahead, and what really matters for anyone confronting the challenges of Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias.
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If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or another memory disorder…
Or if you are caring for someone with Alzheimer’s and are wondering if there’s a new drug or therapy in the pipeline that might help…
Then it’s vitally important to stay on top of developments in the field – so you can ask your doctor the key questions and discuss the critical issues that affect the management of the disease.
To help you, the editors of Scientific American Consumer Health have created Alzheimer’s Outlook 2015 — a valuable resource that gives you access to a roundtable of preeminent physicians and “listen in” as they share their insights and ideas about the future course of Alzheimer’s disease — and provide a clear sense of what caregivers and patients can hope for.
Contributors to Alzheimer’s Outlook 2015 come from leading hospitals and research centers around the United States, including:
• Harvard Medical School
• Johns Hopkins Medicine
• The Cleveland Clinic
• Brigham and Women’s Hospital
• NYU Langone Medical Center
• Duke University
• Wake Forest School of Medicine
• Georgetown University
These renowned experts are uniquely qualified to identify the very latest-and future-trends in Alzheimer’s research and management… and to share these findings with you.
What’s in the Alzheimer’s pipeline?
In the past few years, researchers have made meaningful strides in the understanding of dementia prevention, diagnosis and treatment. As Medical Editor Peter V. Rabins, M.D., M.P.H., notes in his introduction, “Advances have been made in screening techniques using biomarkers that should allow us to detect the disease much earlier in the dementia process and track its progress. Although no one is close to announcing a cure for Alzheimer’s disease just yet, the research and the experimental drugs that you will read about in this special report certainly offer a glimmer of hope.”
With this new understanding, the research field is moving into a quest for biomarkers of early disease and drug trials with medications that target amyloid – the protein that builds up in abnormal amounts in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.
Here’s just a brief look at some of the other topics we discuss in this landmark publication:
• Novel Alzheimer’s Disease Therapies in Development by Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.D.
Dr. Tansy reviews several of the most promising candidate therapies currently in various phases of development and testing, including B11B 037, a human monoclonal antibody drug… ACI-35, the world’s first therapeutic vaccine in clinical development that stimulates the patient’s immune system to produce antibodies against the tau protein … MK-8931, which appears to reduce the cerebrospinal levels of beta-amulois in trial subjects with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s… Encenicline, which targets nicotinic receptors in the brain to cause significant improvements in cognition and clinical function.
• Imaging Alzheimer’s by Reisa Sperling, M.D., M.MSc.
Dr. Sperlig discusses a new technology that uses tau tracer compounds to track the initiation and progression of Alzheimer’s neurodegeneration. She also describes an Alzheimer’s blood test that can measure proteins in the blood indicative of early Alzheimer’s disease.
• New Hope for Agitated Patients by Jeffrey L. Cummings, M.D., Sc.D.
We will soon have effective medications to treat the behavioral disturbances that often accompany Alzheimer’s. Dr. Cummings talks about Pimavaserin and Nuedexta.
• Novel Intranasal Therapy by Suzanne Craft, Ph.D.
Successful completion of the SNIFF trial (Study of Nasal Insulin to Fight Forgetfulness) could lead to intranasal insulin as a treatment for mild Alzheimer’s in the near future.
• Vaccines for Alzheimer’s by Thomas Wisniewski, M.D.
For two decades, researchers have been exploring immunotherapy as a means of clearing amyloid plaque from the brain. Despite recent setbacks, Dr. Wisniewski describes two promising anti-amyloids vaccines in the pipeline, ACC-001 and CAD106.
• Treating Alzheimer’s with Stem Cells by Mustafa M. Husain, M.D.
Dr. Husain believes that within a few years stem cells — a class of nonspecific cells that are able to morph into specialized cell types — will provide a treatment, if not a cure, for Alzheimer’s.
• Using Resveratrol to Delay or Prevent Alzheimer’s by R. Scott Turner, M.D., Ph.D.
An increasing amount of research is being directed at finding a way to prevent dementia, specifically by reducing cardiovascular risk factors. In his chapter, Dr. Turner looks at the promise of resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant found in red grapes, red wine, chocolate, tomatoes, and peanuts that may offer some protection against Alzheimer’s.
• Ketosis and Brain Health by Jason Brandt, Ph.D.
Recent findings suggest that following a ketogenic diet — which is high in saturated fats and extremely low in carbohydrates — might prevent the onset or slow the rate of dementia. Dr. Brandt explains.
• Assessing Your Own Brain Health by Malaz Boustani, M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Boustani explains The Healthy Aging Care Monitor, a self-assessment tool, which allows patients to monitor their own cognitive health.