Deputy director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, UK Dementia Research Institute Group leader, and president of the British Neuroscience Association
Drugs to treat erectile dysfunction may be associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, according to an observational study of nearly 270,000 men, published in Neurology. The research does not prove that these drugs reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, but only shows an association.
Researchers have described five cases of people in the UK who developed Alzheimer's-like dementia after being treated as children with growth hormone from cadavers. The treatment was administered between 60 and 40 years ago. This suggests that the disease could be transmitted. However, the authors point out that this is a very rare occurrence and could have been caused by repeated exposure to a type of hormone that is no longer used. The results are published in the journal Nature Medicine.
A press release from Eli Lilly claims that its antibody treatment, donanemab, significantly slowed cognitive and functional decline in a phase 3 study of early-stage Alzheimer's disease. The results have not yet been published in a scientific journal.
A Swedish research team has successfully 'grown' a soft, electrically conductive polymer in various zebrafish and leech tissues, as well as in isolated mammalian muscle tissues, without damaging those tissues. The research is published in Science.