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Scientists Say They Have Fully Reversed Alzheimer’s In Mice 

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Alzheimer’s disease impacts more than seven million Americans, devastating their cognitive ability and overall identity. It’s a highly researched disease that even the biggest minds in science and healthcare are continuing to learn more about. 

Now, a team of American scientists are claiming that they’ve “cured” lab mice suffering from the disease, a monumental step towards the future of fighting Alzheimer’s and, potentially, other cognitive diseases. 

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According to a new paper in the journal Cell Reports Medicine. Scientists from Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), University Hospitals, and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, researchers administered rodents with the compound P7C3-A20 leading to the reversal of Alzheimer’s. 

“The key takeaway is a message of hope — the effects of Alzheimer’s disease may not be inevitably permanent. The damaged brain can, under some conditions, repair itself and regain function.” said Andrew A. Pieper, the study’s principal investigator in a statement. 

This research is a part of a much larger wave of new lab studies that are working to help treat, and even cure, Alzheimer’s and other neurological issues. 

University of Edinburgh neuroscience professor Tara Spires-Jones, who wasn’t part of this study, told the BBC “scientists are closer than ever to a truly life-changing treatment — in as little as five to 10 years; instead of a slow death where people lose themselves. New tests will detect the condition early and innovative treatments will really make your life normal.”

Scientists have been moving closer and closer to understand the causes of Alzheimer’s, looking at factors such as genetics, environment, and other stressors. 

According to Sharon Adaro of Futurism Magazine, “In the P7C3-A20 study, the scientists focused on the impact of the crucial molecule NAD+, a coenzyme important for driving cellular metabolism and which decreases as we age. 

Patients with Alzheimer’s suffer from a significant decrease of NAD+ in the brain, and hence their brain cells have trouble maintaining normal functionality, staving off inflammation, and canceling other physical hallmarks of the disease,” Adaro wrote. 

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In this study, the team looked at two types of lab mice that were genetically bred to be predisposed to Alzheimer’s. The groups were differentiated based on which specific proteins they had that contained mutations causing them to be predisposed. The team injected P7C3-A20 into both groups when they were two months old. 

As the mice aged, they didn’t develop the disease. Additionally, the team injected the compound into a batch of lab mice who were six months old and suffering from an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s. 

After that group received their injections, they completely recovered their cognitive ability as well as NAD+ levels were completely restored to normal levels. 

“We were very excited and encouraged by our results,” said Pieper in the statement. 

“Restoring the brain’s energy balance achieved pathological and functional recovery in both lines of mice with advanced Alzheimer’s. Seeing this effect in two very different animal models, each driven by different genetic causes, strengthens the new idea that recovery from advanced disease might be possible in people with AD when the brain’s NAD+ balance is restored.”

“What’s also good about this study is that P7C3-A20 offers an alternative pathway to boosting NAD+ levels versus taking over-the-counter chemical precursors for NAD+, which can raise NAD+ to such toxic levels that people could develop cancer,” Pieper said.

drinks

Even Light Drinking May Raise Dementia Risk, Landmark Study Finds

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For years, the public has heard that a glass of wine a day may offer some health benefits. But a sweeping new study suggests that even modest drinking could quietly erode cognitive health over time, adding weight to growing evidence that there may be no truly safe amount of alcohol when it comes to dementia.

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The Curious Case of ‘SuperAgers’: How Some People Over 80 Keep Minds as Sharp as Ever

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At 85, Sel Yackley is busier than most people half her age. Her days are filled with civic organization meetings, choir practice, book clubs, gym workouts, and knitting scarves for the homeless. She even finds time to get 7.5 hours of sleep a night, according to her Fitbit.

She’s also a SuperAger — a rare class of individuals 80 or older whose memory performance rivals that of people decades younger. As researchers at Northwestern University’s Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease explain, Yackley is more than just a high-functioning anomaly. She’s a living clue in a scientific mystery that may reshape how we understand aging.

When most people think of aging, they picture cognitive decline, memory lapses, and slower recall. But the SuperAgers at the center of Northwestern’s long-running study defy these expectations.

Since 2000, nearly 300 older adults have participated in the Northwestern University SuperAging Program (NUSAP), which focuses on individuals whose memory — particularly their delayed word recall — remains robust well into their 80s, 90s, and even beyond.

Yackley, who moved to Chicago from Turkey, credits both her genes and her spirit. Her parents lived into their late 80s, and she maintains a lifestyle rich in engagement and purpose.

“I think it’s partly your determination to live a long life and your activities that enable you to do so,” she told NBC News. She also encourages older adults to “pursue things that make you proud.”

So what exactly makes a SuperAger tick? That’s the question researchers at the Mesulam Center have been asking for the past 25 years. Their latest findings, published this week in “Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association,” shed light on both the lifestyle habits and biological features that distinguish SuperAgers from their peers.

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Dr. M. Marsel Mesulam first coined the term “SuperAger” in the late 1990s. Since then, his team — now led, in part, by Dr. Tamar Gefen, a neuropsychologist and associate professor at Northwestern — has taken a multi-pronged approach, including cognitive testing, lifestyle analysis, and post-mortem brain studies.

Interestingly, Gefen notes that most SuperAgers have one major thing in common: connection.

“I don’t know if it’s necessarily social connections, it’s just connections in general. There are people who are connected to the land, there are people who are connected to their ancestry, people who are connected to their grandchildren, who are connected to their art. You don’t see a lot of detached SuperAgers.”

To explore the neuroscience behind this phenomenon, researchers have autopsied nearly 80 brains of SuperAgers and compared them to those of neurotypical older adults. They focused on two biological markers heavily linked to Alzheimer’s disease: amyloid plaques and tau tangles.

SuperAgers had significantly fewer tau tangles in memory-critical regions of the brain — despite having similar levels of amyloid buildup.

This raises a provocative question, Gefen says: “Are we really targeting the right target if SuperAgers and their peers have similar amounts of amyloid?”

Their brains also feature larger entorhinal neurons, which play a key role in memory, and an abundance of von Economo neurons — rare cells believed to be associated with social intuition and complex emotions.

While some scientists believe these neural traits may be present from birth, researchers are now digging deeper into the cellular and genetic makeup of SuperAgers to understand how these advantages are maintained over time.

Of course, lifestyle alone doesn’t paint the full picture.

“Genetics is a part of it, definitely,” Gefen explains. For instance, some SuperAgers lack the high-risk gene variants associated with Alzheimer’s, such as APOE4. People of European descent who inherit two copies of APOE4 have up to a 60% chance of developing Alzheimer’s by age 85, but SuperAgers often don’t carry that burden.

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“Our guess is that [SuperAgers] are probably born with these kinds of structural protections, but we’re now going really deep into the molecular mechanisms of the cell in order to figure out what is keeping that cell strong.”

Gefen is interested in whether the genes that SuperAgers harbor can prevent the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Is there a gene, let’s say, that’s related to the immune system, that is over-expressed in SuperAgers that can be manipulated to then help individuals protect themselves?”

SuperAgers are rare — at least for now. During the program’s initial recruitment period, only about 10% of participants met the criteria for being a SuperAger. Today, 101 active participants, aged 81 to 111, continue to contribute data, perspective, and even their eventual brain tissue to science.

And they come from all walks of life. Some are health nuts; others still enjoy the occasional vice. Some had stable, happy lives; others endured serious trauma and hardship. What unites them isn’t a perfect past — it’s resilience, purpose, and cognitive performance that stand out against the odds. “These SuperAgers know that they have a gift,” Gefen says.

Sel Yackley has already arranged for her brain to be donated to Northwestern’s Brain Bank — and, she hopes, her organs as well.

“Hopefully, maybe my heart or my kidneys can be used for transplanting. I don’t want to be underground.”

She’s still got things to do, though. The retired journalist and travel agent is currently tackling a scrapbook of her life. She logs about 4,200 steps a day and keeps her social calendar full. Her next goal? Making it to 90.

Alzheimers

FDA Clears First Blood Test in U.S. to Aid Alzheimer’s Diagnosis, Marking Major Breakthrough in Early Detection

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In a significant leap forward for Alzheimer’s diagnostics, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the green light to the first blood test designed to aid in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. The test, developed by Pennsylvania-based Fujirebio Diagnostics Inc., offers a more accessible, less invasive alternative to traditional diagnostic tools like PET scans and spinal taps.

The newly approved tool, officially named the Lumipulse G pTau217/β-Amyloid 1-42 Plasma Ratio, is geared toward adults aged 55 and older who are showing symptoms consistent with Alzheimer’s. Rather than measuring amyloid plaques in the brain directly, it assesses the ratio of two key proteins—pTau217 and beta-amyloid 1-42—found in blood plasma. This ratio has been found to correlate strongly with the presence or absence of amyloid plaque buildup in the brain, a defining feature of Alzheimer’s pathology.

While this test does not stand alone as a diagnostic measure, its FDA clearance means clinicians now have a powerful new screening option in their arsenal. Medical professionals will still need to combine the blood test results with other clinical evaluations, including cognitive testing, neurological exams, and patient history.

“Alzheimer’s disease impacts too many people, more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Martin Makary in the agency’s Friday announcement.

“Knowing that 10% of people aged 65 and older have Alzheimer’s and that by 2050 that number is expected to double, I am hopeful that new medical products such as this one will help patients.”

Until now, diagnosing Alzheimer’s has been a complex and costly process, often requiring brain imaging or cerebrospinal fluid analysis. These procedures can be expensive—PET scans alone can run thousands of dollars—and are not always widely accessible. The Fujirebio test, by contrast, offers a faster and potentially more affordable option for initial screening, helping patients and doctors identify Alzheimer’s earlier in its course when interventions might be more effective.

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The FDA’s clearance of the test was based on clinical data involving 499 adults who were cognitively impaired. Their plasma samples were analyzed using the new test and compared against PET scans or cerebrospinal fluid results.

The findings were encouraging: 91.7% of patients who tested positive for Alzheimer’s using the blood test were confirmed to have amyloid plaques through imaging or spinal fluid, while 97.3% of those who tested negative also showed no plaques.

Still, like all diagnostic tools, the test carries some risk of error. The FDA notes that false positives or negatives are possible and emphasizes the need to interpret results in the broader context of a patient’s health profile.

Dr. Richard Isaacson, a preventive neurologist and one of the nation’s pioneers in Alzheimer’s prevention clinics, has long used the Lumipulse test in research settings. He praised the FDA’s decision as a much-needed step forward.

“It can provide better clarity into whether a person experiencing memory loss may have Alzheimer’s disease. They can take this test as a screening test,” said Isaacson, who is also the director of research at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Florida. Compared with costly PET scans or spinal taps, “this is a much more simple screening test, with reasonable accuracy, to tell the physician that a person with cognitive decline has symptoms that are actually due to Alzheimer’s disease.”

Still, he urged caution. “I think the next step as a field is, we need to advance education about what these tests mean and what they don’t and who they should be used for,” he said. “Because they mean different things in different people depending on their risk factors and whether or not they have symptoms. So we’re still early.”

Fujirebio’s president and CEO, Monte Wiltse, expressed hope that this breakthrough would catalyze the development of new treatments.

“An early and accurate diagnosis will also facilitate the development of new drug therapies, which are urgently needed as the prevalence of AD increases with a rapidly aging population globally,” Wiltse stated during a news release after the company first submitted its test for FDA approval.

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Currently, about 42% of Americans over age 55 are expected to develop some form of dementia. Amyloid deposits can begin to form in the brain decades before noticeable symptoms appear, and the earlier these deposits are detected, the more opportunity there is for intervention—whether through lifestyle changes, cognitive therapies, or new medications.

Dr. Maria Carrillo, chief science officer at the Alzheimer’s Association, echoed the optimism in a statement released Friday.

“For too long, Americans have struggled to get a simple and accurate diagnosis. With today’s action by the FDA, we are hopeful it will be easier for more individuals to receive an accurate diagnosis earlier.”

While blood-based biomarker tests have existed for research and private lab use, the Fujirebio Diagnostics test is the first to gain FDA clearance, potentially opening the floodgates for similar tools.

“Blood-based biomarkers are reshaping how we identify and understand Alzheimer’s disease,” Carrillo said. “At the same time, there are important questions for health care professionals to consider; in particular, who should be tested and when.”

Dr. Howard Fillit, co-founder of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, told CNN in an email on Friday, “The ability to diagnose Alzheimer’s earlier with a simple blood test, like we do for cholesterol, is a game changer, allowing more patients to receive treatment options that have the potential to significantly slow or even prevent the disease.”

“This is a clear example of the new era of Alzheimer’s research where innovation, science and technology come together to develop more accessible, affordable and scalable tools that will pave the way for additional regulatory approvals of diagnostic tools.”