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 […]

Rainwater Charitable Foundation Announces Second-Annual Rainwater Prize Winners for Brain Research (Links to an external site)

FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — The Rainwater Charitable Foundation, one of the largest independent funders of neurodegenerative disease research, today announced Dr. David M. Holtzman (the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and Chair of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis) and Dr. Celeste Karch (Associate Professor of Psychiatry, […]

Protein linked to Alzheimer’s, strokes cleared from brain blood vessels (Links to an external site)

Amyloid deposits (blue) in mouse brain tissue and blood vessels are reduced after treatment with an antibody that targets the protein APOE (right), a minor component of amyloid deposits, compared to a placebo antibody (left). Amyloid deposits in the brain increase the risk of dementia and strokes. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified an antibody that clears amyloid deposits from the brain without raising the risk of brain bleeds.

As people age, a normal brain protein known as amyloid beta often starts to collect into harmful amyloid plaques in the brain. Such plaques can be the first step on the path to Alzheimer’s dementia. When they form around blood vessels in the brain, a condition known as cerebral amyloid angiopathy, the plaques also raise […]

Fauci to discuss COVID-19 during online med school event Jan. 7 (Links to an external site)

Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will give an online talk to the Washington University Medical Campus community on Thursday, Jan. 7. The talk will be available online to the public.

Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will give the Gerald Medoff Visiting Professor lecture at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis on Thursday, Jan. 7. The session will be delivered online.

Protein involved in removing Alzheimer’s buildup linked to circadian rhythm (Links to an external site)

Immune cells known as microglia (turquoise with red dots) surround a plaque of the Alzheimer’s protein amyloid (blue). The red dots indicate that the microglia are prepared to remove the potentially damaging plaque. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered a protein that links the amyloid-removal process to the circadian clock. The protein, YKL-40, could help explain why people with Alzheimer’s frequently suffer from sleep disturbances, and provide a new target for Alzheimer’s therapies.

Fractured sleep, daytime sleepiness and other signs of disturbance in one’s circadian rhythm are common complaints of people with Alzheimer’s disease, and the problems only get worse as the disease progresses. But the reason for the link between Alzheimer’s and circadian dysfunction is not well understood.

Construction progresses on neuroscience research building (Links to an external site)

The neuroscience research building’s basement lies in a hole 25 feet deep and 400 feet long, dug at the southeast corner of Duncan and Newstead avenues. More than 106 drilled concrete piers have been poured, and the interior columns and floor in the western half of the basement have been completed. (Photo: Matt Miller/School of Medicine)

Washington University School of Medicine’s eastern border began noticeably changing in April and will look strikingly different in 2023, when the neuroscience research building — 11 stories tall and 609,000 square feet — is complete. The building project, the largest in the medical school’s history, will span almost a block in the 200-acre Cortex Innovation […]

Why doesn’t deep-brain stimulation work for everyone? (Links to an external site)

Brain networks corresponding to functions such as vision (blue) and attention (green) mingle and share information in structures deep inside the brain, as seen, for example, in the bottom right corner of this color-coded composite MRI image. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have mapped nine functional networks in the deep-brain structures of 10 healthy people, an accomplishment that could lead to improvements in deep-brain stimulation therapy for severe cases of Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions. (Image: Scott Marek)

People with severe Parkinson’s disease or other neurological conditions that cause intractable symptoms such as uncontrollable shaking, muscle spasms, seizures, obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors are sometimes treated with electric stimulators placed inside the brain. Such stimulators are designed to interrupt aberrant signaling that causes the debilitating symptoms. The therapy, deep-brain stimulation, can provide relief […]