Amyloid Plaque News and Research

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Luminex collaborates with Merck to design companion diagnostic device for Alzheimer’s disease

WHITEHOUSE STATION known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and Luminex Corporation have signed a collaboration and license agreement to develop a companion diagnostic device that will be evaluated to help screen patients for recruitment into Merck's clinical development program for MK-8931, a novel oral beta amyloid precursor protein site cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor and Merck's lead investigational candidate for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

From Luminex 15 Mar 2013

Amyloid plaques take about 15 years to build up and then plateau: Study

Researchers have identified a possible treatment window of several years for plaques in the brain that are thought to cause memory loss in diseases such as Alzheimer's. The Mayo Clinic study is published in the Feb. 27 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

28 Feb 2013

BCHE gene variant predicts extent of plaque deposits in Alzheimer's

A study combining genetic data with brain imaging, designed to identify genes associated with the amyloid plaque deposits found in Alzheimer's disease patients, has not only identified the APOE gene -- long associated with development of Alzheimer's -- but has uncovered an association with a second gene, called BCHE.

21 Feb 2013

Activated astrocytes could play a harmful role in Alzheimer's disease

A research team composed of University of Kentucky researchers has published a paper which provides the first direct evidence that activated astrocytes could play a harmful role in Alzheimer's disease.

12 Dec 2012

Combination of imaging and biomarker tests helps predict Alzheimer's in patients with MCI

Employing a combination of imaging and biomarker tests improves the ability of doctors to predict Alzheimer's in patients with mild cognitive impairment, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.

11 Dec 2012

Merck commences MK-8931 Phase II/III trial in Alzheimer's

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced it has started a Phase II/III clinical trial designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of MK-8931 versus placebo in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease.

3 Dec 2012

Studies shake up Alzheimer’s hypotheses

Two studies in people at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease reveal very early changes in brain structure and function that may actually precede amyloid beta deposition.

6 Nov 2012

Researchers analyse hydrogen bonds in tiny fibrils of amyloid-beta peptide

Using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, researchers at Luleå University of Technology in collaboration with Warwick University in the UK for the first time in the world managed to analyse hydrogen bonds in tiny fibrils of Amyloid-beta peptide , which probably causes Alzheimer's disease.

5 Nov 2012

TTP488 slows cognitive decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's

A novel, orally administered drug candidate, TTP488, has demonstrated clinical evidence of slowing of cognitive decline over 18 months of therapy in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.

30 Oct 2012

Dementia: A National Crisis – a review of the Manchester 2012 conference

It was clear from the title – Dementia: A National Crisis – that the conference would focus on the important challenges facing many people living with dementia in the country today.

24 Oct 2012

Navidea commences enrollment in [18F]NAV4694 Phase 2 study for Alzheimer's

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on precision diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, today announced that enrollment has commenced at two sites participating in its Phase 2, open-label, safety and efficacy PET imaging study of [18F]NAV4694 for detection of cerebral β-amyloid plaque in subjects diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD).

19 Sep 2012

MitoTarget Project and neurodegenerative diseases: an interview with Rebecca Pruss, Ph.D., CSO of Trophos

The MitoTarget Project was a project funded by the European Commission, under their FP7 programme. It was funding for a call published in 2007.

21 Aug 2012

Protein folding: Nobel laureate Ahmed H. Zewail summarizes his insights

Living subjects are very complex systems and, at the same time, stunningly robust and accommodative. The secret of success are their proteins which build up the cells of the organisms, act as cleaners, messengers, transporter, motors, and fulfill much more jobs. How proteins are genetically coded and how their linear chains of amino acids are put together, is in principle well known.

14 Aug 2012

Advanced Radiology to offer Amyvid for detection of AD

Advanced Radiology, a division of RadNet, Inc., a national market leader providing high-quality, cost-effective diagnostic imaging services through a network of 237 fully-owned and operated outpatient imaging centers, announced it will be one of a small number of imaging centers in the U.S. to offer Amyvid, a radioactive tracer used in positron emission tomography – computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging that helps to detect the quantity of beta-amyloid plaque in patient's brains.

8 Aug 2012

GE Healthcare announces final results from [18F]flutemetamol phase 3 study on AD

GE Healthcare today announced the final results from a phase 3 study of the investigational PET amyloid imaging agent, [18F]flutemetamol in terminally ill patients who had agreed to undergo postmortem brain autopsy.

18 Jul 2012

Cardinal Health to produce new AD diagnostic imaging agent, Amyvid

Cardinal Health today announced that it will manufacture and distribute Amyvid, Eli Lilly and Company's new diagnostic imaging agent that aids in the evaluation of adult patients with cognitive impairment who are being evaluated for Alzheimer's Disease and other causes of cognitive decline. The commercial launch of Amyvid is scheduled for June 1, 2012.

2 Jun 2012

LCP molecules can treat prion diseases

Toxic prions in the brain can be detected with self-illuminating polymers. The originators, at Linköping University in Sweden, has now shown that the same molecules can also render the prions harmless, and potentially cure fatal nerve-destroying illnesses.

25 Apr 2012

PDAD patients have much denser accumulations of striatal plaques in the brain

Dementia is a frequent complication of Parkinson's disease (PD), but it is clinically impossible to distinguish PD dementia (PDD), which develops from the progression of the Lewy body pathology that underlies PD, from PD with coexistent Alzheimer's disease.

17 Apr 2012

Siemens announces integrated imaging solution for detection of amyloid plaques

Siemens Healthcare is the first company worldwide to announce a complete integrated diagnostic imaging solution proposed for the detection of amyloid plaques — one of the necessary pathological features of Alzheimer's disease— in the living brain.

From Siemens Healthineers 11 Apr 2012

Avid Radiopharmaceuticals receives FDA approval for Amyvid to treat AD

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Amyvid (Florbetapir F 18 Injection) a drug for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging of the brain in adults who are being evaluated for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and other causes of cognitive decline.

11 Apr 2012