Monday’s BBC Panorama episode – “Alzheimer’s: A Turning Point?” – focused on the potential arrival of two new breakthrough treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, lecanemab and donanemab. In the past two years, both drugs have been shown to slow down the progression of the early stages of the disease – which is the most common form of dementia. The documentary follows the BBC’s Medical Editor, Fergus Walsh, as he meets people with Alzheimer’s who have been taking the drugs by participating in clinical trials. Neither drug currently has a licence to be prescribed in the UK outside of these trials ..read more

Alzheimer’s Research UK has today (Wednesday 07 February 2024) announced the appointment of four new Trustees – leading figures from across the charity, technology law and medical sectors – who are determined to help deliver a cure for dementia.   The UK’s leading dementia research charity has welcomed to its board: Prof Jeremy Chataway, Professor of Neurology at University College London and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square. Dr Catherine Elliott, Director of Research and Partnerships at Cancer Research UK. Adrian Lovett, Chief Executive Officer at Devel ..read more

Drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction could also be linked to a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research from University College London. The findings have been published today in the online issue of medical journal Neurology. . Erectile dysfunction drugs, including common brand name Viagra, work by dilating blood vessels to increase blood flow. They were first developed to treat high blood pressure, but based on this new study, researchers are calling for further investigation into whether they could be used to prevent Alzheimer’s disease – the most common f ..read more

The pharmaceutical company, Biogen, announced this week that it will stop developing and marketing the Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab (commercially known as Aduhelm).   Aducanumab is designed to target and clear amyloid, one of the hallmark proteins that builds up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, at an early stage of the disease. This is similar to the mode of action of newer Alzheimer’s drugs, lecanemab – also made by Biogen – and Eli Lilly’s donanemab.   Aducanumab was made available to people living with Alzheimer’s in the US in June 2021, but was not approved for ..read more

New research, published today in Nature Medicine, has identified five cases of Alzheimer’s disease believed to have arisen because of a medical treatment decades earlier. These individuals had all been treated as children with a type of human growth hormone extracted from pituitary glands from deceased donors (cadaver-derived human growth hormone or c-hGH). This treatment has been banned since the 1980s due to concerns that it was responsible for transmitting Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). In their new study, researchers based at UCL and UCLH found that the growth hormone had the potential t ..read more

On Monday (8 January) household brand, Cadbury, announced its 200th anniversary plans for 2024 and partnership with Alzheimer’s Research UK. In celebration of its 200th anniversary this year, Cadbury has released limited-edition Cadbury Dairy Milk Bars, as well as donating £200,000 to the UK’s leading dementia research charity. The bars – in store from now until April – feature iconic designs from bars of the past, from 1915 to present day. To mark the special partnership with Alzheimer’s Research UK, the bars also feature the charity’s logo on the retro packs. For two centuries, Cadbury has d ..read more

Today the government announced that £49.9 million will go towards expanding the number of dementia research sites across the UK. This will give more people the chance to take part in clinical trials, ultimately helping fuel our journey towards a cure for the diseases that cause dementia. This new pot of funding will be used by the Dementia Translational Collaboration Trials Network, an initiative run by The National Institute for Health and Care Research, to offer more people with dementia the opportunity to take part in early phase clinical trials. By doing so, it will “accelerate therapy dev ..read more

Race Against Dementia, founded by Sir Jackie Stewart OBE, in partnership with Alzheimer’s Research UK – the UK’s leading dementia research charity – have awarded £500,000 to Dr Amy Lloyd at the University of Dundee, to support her research relating to Alzheimer’s disease. Dr Lloyd will investigate why the behaviour of immune cells in the brain called microglia change over time in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Three-time Formula 1 World Champion, Sir Jackie Stewart OBE, founded the charity after his wife, Helen, was diagnosed with a rare form of dementia know as frontotemporal dementi ..read more

JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery: Hearing Loss, Hearing Aid Use, and Risk of Dementia in Older Adults A new study involving 573,088 adults in Southern Denmark provides further data indicating that hearing loss is associated with increased dementia risk, especially among people not using hearing aids. This suggests that hearing aids might prevent or delay the onset and progression of dementia. Hearing loss was significantly associated with a 7% higher risk of dementia. People with hearing loss who were not using hearing aids were at considerably higher risk of dementia compared with ..read more

Neurology: Association Between Sleep Quantity and Quality in Early Adulthood With Cognitive Function in Midlife New research from the University of California published today in Neurology has shown an association between quality of sleep and changes to cognitive function in midlife adults. Over 500 people with an average age of 40, had their sleeping patterns tracked using a device worn on the wrist. They also completed thinking and memory tests to measure cognitive function at the beginning of the study and again just over a decade later. The researchers found that those who had a higher leve ..read more