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‘We’re not giving up’: A neuroscientist on AbbVie’s quest to find a treatment for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases

A molecular biochemist by training, AbbVie neuroscientist Eric Karran leads a team of 210 scientists who are dedicated to finding a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Karran believes in “embracing the unknown,” an ethos that informs how his team approaches Alzheimer’s research, which remains one of the greatest neurological puzzles in the medical world.

It has been so challenging to find effective therapies that many other companies have abandoned their drug discovery projects. Yet Karran and his team keep searching — relentlessly pushing past the unknowns toward a cure.

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  MindCrowd

MindCrowd® is the first online research project of its kind to study millions of individuals to help bring us closer to a cure for Alzheimer’s. Help us reach the 1 million people mark.

 After amyloid failures, it’s time to take a new tack for treating Alzheimer’s

If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results, then the last decade or so of Alzheimer’s disease drug development has been insane. Three carefully designed, well-executed, and fully resourced trials targeting amyloid protein in the brain as the cause of Alzheimer’s disease have failed. It’s long past time to take a new approach to this mind-robbing disease.

 Alzheimer's Researchers Go Back To Basics To Find The Best Way Forward

One goal is to identify cells that become abnormal long before symptoms of Alzheimer's start to appear. "If we can find the cells where something goes wrong, this would provide a new way to try to treat this disease," Lein says.

 Drug slows cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients, study reveals

Antibody therapy lecanemab removes clumps of protein called beta amyloid that builds up in brain.

 Is the Leading Theory About Alzheimer's Wrong?

Yet another failed drug trial has prompted soul-searching about the “amyloid hypothesis.”

 ‘Zombie cells’ could hold the secret to Alzheimer’s cure

In an aging brain, cells that stop working yet refuse to die may play a role in dementia—making them key targets for future medicines.

Articles of Interest

A new view of twisted proteins could help scientists understand Alzheimer’s

Many scientists believe that tau proteins are the molecular building blocks of Alzheimer’s disease. Within the cell, these proteins clump together and group into tangles. These tangles are thought to inhibit cell communication, form lesions, and eventually cause the memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s. Different arrangements of tau proteins, or “morphologies,” can accompany different neurodegenerative diseases such Parkinson’s.

Alzheimer’s disease: surprising new theory about what might cause it

Lecanemab was recently reported to have a small but significant effect in reducing cognitive decline. According to previous studies, this drug increases the levels of amyloid-beta 42 in the CSF. This is, again, in line with our hypothesis, namely that the increase of the normal amyloid protein can be beneficial.

Alzheimer’s Drugs Advance but Slowing Disease Remains a Challenge

Although Biogen and Eisai’s lecanemab cleared plaque from patients’ brains, researchers say the benefits may be limited.

Alzheimer’s Hits Men and Women Differently, and We Need to Understand Why

To fight the disease, we need to look at sex-specific risks.

Alzheimer’s Is More Complicated Than We Thought

With a much-needed spike in research funding, scientists are transcending a one-size-fits-all approach for the disease and looking at personalized strategies for prevention and treatment.

Alzheimer’s Researchers Probe New Treatment Paths

After Aduhelm’s downfall, other drugs target different drivers of poorly understood disease.

America Needs Alzheimer’s Funding Now

While the National Institute of Health spends $3 billion a year on AIDS research, and nearly $4.9 billion on cancer, for Alzheimer’s it spends only $500 million, an enormous drop off for an illness that is already widespread and growing rapidly.

An Alzheimer’s Treatment Fails: ‘We Don’t Have Anything Now’

With high hopes, drugs to fight brain plaques were tested in people genetically destined to develop dementia. The drugs failed.

Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease

The aims of the meeting are to bring together the current leaders in clinical trials in Alzheimer's Disease to discuss new results, drugs in development, and future methodological issues (disease modifying, outcomes, biomarkers, health economics).

Connections between Alzheimer’s Disease and viruses are building, but stop freaking out

First of all, it's not the herpes you're thinking of.

Could viruses cause Alzheimer's? COVID-19 brain studies offer new clues.

The diseases share some surprising similarities, and experts now think studying COVID-19 patients' brains could lead to better treatments for both conditions.

Experimental Alzheimer’s drug shows promise – but there are many hurdles still to overcome

The full results of the phase 3 lecanemab drug trial (the final stage of testing in humans) have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The trial showed that patients receiving the drug had a 27% slower disease progression than those receiving a placebo after 18 months of treatment.

How Close Are We To A Cure For Alzheimer's?

We very much still lack clarity on the heterogeneity and granularity of the disease thus making it profoundly difficult to assess disease stages for measurements and clinical trials.

How Seth Rogen Is Getting Millennials To Fight Alzheimer's

Rogen and Miller, both 34 and Millennials, know the devastating downside of having a loved one diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. They also know how to harness humor and their thirtysomething friends to raise awareness and funds for a disease that most Millennials know little about.

New Alzheimer's Research Holds Promise for Future

Studies are focusing on sleep, brain proteins, new drugs, lifestyle, and more.

Not Enough Sleep May Help Alzheimer’s Take Hold

In recent years, scientists have made small steps towards understanding the relationship between sleep and Alzheimer’s disease. Now, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University in Portland may soon illuminate the connection—they are launching the first experiment of its kind that will study a key process in the brains of sleeping humans...

Researchers Explore Why Women's Alzheimer's Risk Is Higher Than Men's

Scientists are beginning to understand why Alzheimer's disease affects more women than men and why the disease seems to progress more quickly in women's brains.

Tau protein—not amyloid—may be key driver of Alzheimer’s symptoms

One of the telltale signs of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is sticky plaques of ß-amyloid protein, which form around neurons and are thought by a large number of scientists to bog down information processing and kill cells. For more than a decade, however, other researchers have fingered a second protein called tau, found inside brain cells, as a possible culprit. Now, a new imaging study of 10 people with mild AD suggests that tau deposits—not amyloid—are closely linked to symptoms such as memory loss and dementia.

The Time to Invest in Alzheimer’s Research Is Now

You’ve been hearing the warnings for years and they’re dire. Without an effective treatment or cure, Alzheimer’s will become so pervasive it will overwhelm the health care system and wreak havoc on the economy. Left unchecked, the footprint of the disease will only expand as the boomers age. We have the imagery down pat. Just search the words “Alzheimer’s” and “tsunami” and nearly 3,000 news articles appear, describing how Alzheimer’s will wash over the aging population like a tidal wave. What we don’t have is anything close to the necessary funding to address the looming crisis. And based on the latest projections, we’d better act fast.

We may finally know what causes Alzheimer’s – and how to stop it

AFTER decades of disappointment, we may have a new lead on fighting Alzheimer’s disease. Compelling evidence that the condition is caused by a bacterium involved in gum disease could prove a game-changer in tackling one of medicine’s biggest mysteries, and lead to effective treatments or even a vaccine. As populations have aged, dementia has skyrocketed to become the fifth biggest cause of death worldwide. Alzheimer’s constitutes some 70 per cent of these cases...

What causes Alzheimer's? Study puts leading theory to 'ultimate test'

An idea that has propelled Alzheimer's research for more than 30 years is approaching its day of reckoning. Scientists are launching a study designed to make or break the hypothesis that Alzheimer's is caused by a sticky substance called beta-amyloid. The study will give an experimental anti-amyloid drug to people as young as 18 who have gene mutations that often cause Alzheimer's to appear in their 30s or 40s.

What Causes Alzheimer’s?

Vox’s Unexplainable podcast interviews Distillations about how Alzheimer’s research has stubbornly focused on a single theory for decades.

Why the pharmaceutical industry is giving up the search for an Alzheimer’s cure

There are three main reasons scientists have not successfully developed new Alzheimer’s drugs in the last decade and a half. The first is a complication of the disease itself: for years, it’s asymptomatic. Neurological symptoms only begin to show when the disease has progressed to the point where it has irreversibly damaged the brain, at which point it’s almost impossible to treat.

Wiping Out the Brain’s Retired Cells Prevents a Hallmark of Alzheimer's

A study in mice hints at a new approach for thwarting neurodegenerative diseases—but many questions remain.