Asthma may reduce risk of brain tumors — but how? (Links to an external site)

Asthma has been associated with a lowered risk of brain tumors, and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis now think they know why: Immune cells activated under conditions of asthma are less able to promote the growth of brain tumors. The findings could lead to new therapeutic approaches.

There’s not much good that can be said about asthma, a breathing disease in which the airways become narrowed and inflamed. But there’s this: People with asthma seem to be less likely to develop brain tumors than others. And now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis believe they have discovered why.

Investigational Alzheimer’s drug improves biomarkers of the disease (Links to an external site)

Randall Bateman, MD, director of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network-Trials Unit (DIAN-TU), an ongoing international clinical trial to evaluate experimental Alzheimer’s drugs, speaks with DIAN-TU participant Taylor Hutton. One of the drugs tested in the DIAN-TU, gantenerumab, improved biomarkers of disease despite unclear cognitive effects, prompting study leaders to offer participants the option of continuing to receive the drug and participate in follow-up examinations as part of a so-called open label extension.

An investigational Alzheimer’s drug reduced molecular markers of disease and curbed neurodegeneration in the brain, without demonstrating evidence of cognitive benefit, in a phase 2/3 clinical trial led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis through its Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network-Trials Unit (DIAN-TU). These results led the trial leaders to offer the drug, […]

International Alzheimer’s clinical trial to test tau drugs (Links to an external site)

Clinical trial participant Taylor Hutton (left) meets with Randall J. Bateman, MD, director of the global DIAN-TU Alzheimer’s clinical trial in 2018. Hutton’s family has a history of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The DIAN-TU is launching three new arms to evaluate experimental Alzheimer’s drugs targeting the protein tau. (Photo: Matt Miller/School of Medicine)

A worldwide clinical trial aimed at finding treatments for Alzheimer’s disease has expanded to include investigational drugs targeting a harmful form of the brain protein tau. The trial, known as the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network Trials Unit (DIAN-TU) and led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, launched in 2012 as the first […]