Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd. has established a new collaboration with UK Biobank to create the world’s first comprehensive, large-scale epigenetic dataset. The project will utilize Oxford Nanopore’s DNA/RNA sequencing technology to map the epigenome of 50,000 blood samples from UK Biobank to unlock insights into disease mechanisms, with the aim of improving patient outcomes.
A digital cognitive assessment developed by Braincheck Inc., Braincheck Assess, proved comparable to the gold-standard Montreal Cognitive Assessment in identifying patients with cognitive impairment in a study published in Frontiers in Psychology.
As Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly and Co. go head-to-head in the U.S. and Chinese glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) market for diabetes and obesity, Novo Nordisk is in innovator gear once more with leading studies of GLP-1s in Alzheimer’s disease.
As Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly and Co. go head-to-head in the U.S. and Chinese glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) market for diabetes and obesity, Novo Nordisk is in innovator gear once more with leading studies of GLP-1s in Alzheimer’s disease.
Suven Life Sciences Ltd. has received IND approval from the FDA allowing it to initiate a first-in-human phase I study of SUVN-I6107, a muscarinic M1 receptor positive allosteric modulator (PAM) as a potential new treatment to address the dementia market.
After decades of trying and dozens of failed trials, amyloid targeting has paid off with the first disease-modifying agents reaching the market. But success does not mean slam dunk. Aduhelm (aducanumab, Biogen Inc.) was dogged by controversy throughout its brief tenure, and Biogen pulled the plug on it in early 2024. Leqembi (lecanemab, Biogen Inc.) has received full approval. In this second installment of a three-part series on Alzheimer’s, BioWorld looks at the nuanced view of amyloid’s role in the disease.
At a recent meeting on “Research priorities for preventing and treating Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias” (ADRD), convened by the National Academies, one consensus priority on ADRD research was that there needs to be more of it at every stage. Several speakers presented stark numbers on the relative volume of research in cancer and neurodegeneration. Research output, measured in peer-reviewed papers, for dementia is estimated to be around 10,000 papers annually, compared to 150,000 for cancer, while AD clinical trials are also few and far between compared to cancer trials. This final installment of BioWorld’s series on Alzheimer’s explores some of the reasons for this discrepancy along with the latest advances and ongoing efforts to accelerate research and drug development in the field.
Ironically, the first person to be diagnosed with what is now Alzheimer’s disease was missing its major risk factor. When she first began showing symptoms of dementia in 1901, Auguste Deter was not particularly old. Despite Deter’s case, aging is the largest risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s, by a large margin. But “geroscience has not been translated into drugs for Alzheimer’s disease,” Howard Fillit, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation co-founder and chief scientific officer, told BioWorld. “We’re just starting to see that cross-fertilization now.”
After decades of trying and dozens of failed trials, amyloid targeting has paid off with the first disease-modifying agents reaching the market. But success does not mean slam dunk. Aduhelm (aducanumab, Biogen Inc.) was dogged by controversy throughout its brief tenure, and Biogen pulled the plug on it in early 2024. Leqembi (lecanemab, Biogen Inc.) has received full approval. In this second installment of a three-part series on Alzheimer’s, BioWorld looks at the nuanced view of amyloid’s role in the disease.
Ironically, the first person to be diagnosed with what is now Alzheimer’s disease was missing its major risk factor. When she first began showing symptoms of dementia in 1901, Auguste Deter was not particularly old. Despite Deter’s case, aging is the largest risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s, by a large margin. But “geroscience has not been translated into drugs for Alzheimer’s disease,” Howard Fillit, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation co-founder and chief scientific officer, told BioWorld. “We’re just starting to see that cross-fertilization now.” This first article of a three-part BioWorld series on Alzheimer’s disease looks at how a group of researchers, as well as some startups, are trying to approach Alzheimer’s via an aging lens.
