Newswise — An in-depth report on Alzforum provides a 360-degree tour of all aspects of Alzheimer’s disease research—from the current state of knowledge about the disease process, to the questions and challenges facing researchers at this point, to prospects for future advances, particularly in the wake of recent treatment failures. Alzforum reporter Gabrielle Strobel talked to leading international Alzheimer’s disease experts while they were spending three days at a conference in a secluded town in Eastern Australia in discussion on where the field could go.
Alzheimer’s disease, a type of dementia that causes memory loss and difficulties thinking, has become a huge public health threat. The number of people with dementia worldwide stands at around 30 million and is forecast to rise to 115 million by 2050. Although researchers know a lot more about the disease today than they did only a decade ago, that understanding has not translated into treatments for patients. One reason is that Alzheimer’s research is underfunded in the U.S. compared to other major diseases. For example, the 2011 National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget request for HIV/AIDS research was $3.1 billion, which represents about $3,100 per person living with HIV in the U.S. In comparison, fiscal year 2012 NIH funding for Alzheimer’s is expected to be $458 million, or about $92 per person with the disease. Another problem is that, so far, potential treatments have been tested in people who have full-blown Alzheimer’s disease, when it may be “too little too late” to intervene. Researchers are now scoping out ways to conduct clinical trials in patients at earlier stages of the disease, even in people who do not yet have symptoms.
The research leaders broke the large problem of Alzheimer’s research into parts. For each part, they brainstormed for ideas to interconnect animal model and human research, and to better translate basic findings into the clinic. They discussed research itself, as well as its infrastructure.
Alzforum’s "From Australia, Impulse of a New Alzheimer’s Research Agenda" is available serialized on the ARF website (http://www.alzforum.org/new/detail.asp?id=2915) and in a freely downloadable PDF form.
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