In the News

A crucial, overlooked question on the new Alzheimer’s drug: When should patients stop taking it? STAT News – June 24, 2021 “When we enroll families in studies of treatments like aducanumab, we try to educate them that they should not expect large improvements in cognition or function,” Joshua Grill, director of the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders at the University of California, Irvine, said in an email to STAT. The drug can’t stop disease progression, only potentially slow it, a change that he warns would likely be imperceptible. “If we can’t expect families to know if the drug…

People taking drugs that cross the blood-brain barrier experienced less cognitive decline June 21, 2021 The research conducted by Daniel Nation, UCI associate professor of psychological science, and Jean Ho, a postdoctoral scholar at the UCI Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders, included more than 12,800 people over the age of 50 in 14 separate studies carried out across six countries. Steve Zylius / UCI Irvine, Calif., June  21, 2021 — A large-scale meta-analysis led by University of California, Irvine researchers provides the strongest evidence yet of which blood pressure medications help slow memory loss in older adults: those that can…

“My greatest concern is around people with families with Alzheimer’s disease,” said Joshua D. Grill, an Alzheimer’s researcher at the University of California at Irvine. “Few can afford the financial burden in the first place, let alone the additional costs of Aduhelm.” He said the cost of an amyloid PET scan was at least $5,000. “Doctors, families, even we researchers need more guidance,” Grill said. Spinal taps offer a more affordable way of determining amyloid levels, but some patients shy away from them.

KATU News: “We all have to do more because this is about the most important medical problem we face as a society today,” said Dr. Josh Grill, a member of the AHEAD Study leadership team and director of the UC Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders. Grill said his AHEAD Study team is testing a new investigational treatment, examining whether they can slow slow or stop the earliest brain changes due to Alzheimer’s disease in people with a higher risk of developing the disease later in life. The team is seeking volunteers on its website: https://www.aheadstudy.org/ “All research…

MarketWatch As we age, our already limited attention span shrinks even more. So it takes extra discipline for seniors to stay curious. … Craig Stark, [professor of neurobiology and behavior], a memory researcher at University of California, Irvine, urges people who want to stay mentally sharp to “feed your brain novel information.” Curiosity can provide the impetus to gather that new information.

UCI MIND Faculty Member Christine Gall, PhD, a neuroscientist and professor of anatomy and neurobiology at UC Irvine’s School of Medicine, explains that our brains contain specialized cells, or neurons, that are responsible for sending and receiving information. Much like a circuit board in a computer, our brains create networks of neurons that transmit electrical activity when we engage in just about anything. These charges, AKA synapses, are critical for learning and memory.

Dr. Steven Tam, together with colleagues in the UCI School of Medicine’s Division of Geriatric Medicine & Gerontology at UC Irvine and Alzheimer’s Orange County are leading the effort to provide more accurate information and better resources to patients with AD and their caregivers.  To learn more, click here.                

An accompanying editorial in JAMA Neurology noted that the study apparently is the first to focus on disparities related to “time to diagnosis and comprehensiveness of evaluation” of dementia. Claudia Kawas, M.D., a [professor], geriatric neurologist and researcher at the University of California, Irvine, and other authors of the editorial … point to the need for more diversity in dementia research — particularly as the aging U.S. population grows more diverse.

UCI School of Medicine Tahseen Mozaffar, MD, a professor of neurology and director of the Division of Neuromuscular Disorders and the UCI-MDA ALS and Neuromuscular Center at UCI’s School of Medicine will lead a study on sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM), which affects aging adults causing asymmetric muscle weakness and severe disability. Currently untreatable, sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM) causes muscle weakness and severe disability Irvine, CA – April 6, 2021 – The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases has awarded UCI a 5-year, $4.2 million grant to study sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM), which affects aging adults…

By the time they’re 40, most people with Down syndrome develop beta amyloid plaques in the brain — a key characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists believe this is because they have an extra copy of chromosome 21, which carries an amyloid-producing gene. Many people with Down syndrome do develop Alzheimer’s disease, but some manage to avoid the devastating neurodegenerative consequences despite having these plaques in their brains. To learn more about the connection between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease, UCI School of Medicine researchers are spearheading a major international research effort that will follow hundreds of adults with the syndrome…

On Monday, MPR News host Kerri Miller talked to two researchers, including UCI MIND investigator Claudia Kawas, MD, about what they’re learning about living to be 100. Do you have to win the genetic lottery to live an entire century? Or could research unlock the secret to living longer and living longer well? Listen here >

The UCI professor has dedicated her career to finding answers to a rare genetic disease’s most crucial questions. An estimated 30,000 genes make up the human genome, with an individual’s entire uniqueness created by genetic mutations. From tissues and blood as well as distinctive physical features, like eye and hair color to temperament and so much more, genes are the coded instructions for building an entire person. But sometimes those instructions contain errors and genes can mutate to form many different things, including diseases. One such disease, Huntington’s disease, is a rare, inherited disease triggered by a single genetic mutation…

UCI MIND Clinical Research Director David Sultzer, MD was featured on CBS2/KCAL9 to discuss Tony Bennett’s recent Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis and how music and memory are intertwined. Watch the video above or learn more at KCAL9.   News coverage: CBS Los Angeles YouTube CBS Los Angeles OneNewsPage.us

UCI Health is home to 174 doctors honored as 2021 Physicians of Excellence by the Orange County Medical Association, more than any other health system in Orange County. Congratulations to UCI MIND faculty members, Gaby Thai, Mark Fisher, Virginia Kimonis, and Tahseen Mozaffar on this honor.

A recent report from Stanford identified the top 2% of the world’s scientists based on their publications and citations. Out of millions of published scientists, including those who have passed away, a total of 445 from UCI, including Vice Chancellor for Research Pramod Khargonekar, and 18 UCI MIND faculty made the cut. We congratulate our faculty members, listed below, on this significant achievement: Neurology & Neurosurgery: Tallie Z. Baram, MD, PhD Ruth Benca, MD, PhD Emiliana Borrelli, PhD Gregory J. Brewer, PhD Carl W. Cotman, PhD David Cribbs, PhD Mark J. Fisher, MD Christine Gall, PhD Charles Glabe, PhD Alan…

Contributed by Hal S. Stern, PhD and Frank M. LaFerla, PhD It is our pleasure to congratulate Charles Glabe, Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, on being named a 2020 fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Among his achievements, Professor Glabe is being recognized for the creation of antibodies that bind to the four kinds of proteins forming the amyloid associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The process enables scientists to detect individual forms of the disease more precisely. The antibodies can be used as a screening tool and could help develop immunotherapies that slow or even prevent Alzheimer’s. Professor…

The University of California, Irvine is undertaking a five-year, multi-million dollar project to expand research on Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome. The National Institute of Health awarded a $109 million grant to the Alzheimer’s Biomarkers Consortium-Down Syndrome in late October. The international team, led by UCI principal investigators Elizabeth Head and Mark Mapstone, aims to identify biomarkers that indicate the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in adults with Down syndrome. Subscribers to the Orange County Business Journal can read more here >