Monthly Archives: november 2013

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on October 25 approved a second amyloid imaging agent. Flutemetamol is an F18-labeled ligand developed by GE Healthcare. It joins florbetapir, developed by Avid Pharmaceuticals/Eli Lilly and Company.

Flutemetamol differs slightly from its cousin because it is approved to report the intensity of binding to amyloid plaques in false color. This could make scans easier to read, some experts agreed. The compound will be commercially available in early 2014.

In regulatory terms, both are approved to indicate whether amyloid is present, and thereby support or refute an AD diagnosis. Neither is intended to diagnose AD on its own or replace other routine clinical tests for cognitive decline. Neither compound is approved to quantify amyloid plaques in the brain. That is something both companies are exploring.

Both agents will be made available to both neurologists and researchers. GE Healthcare has submitted an application for approval to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and will apply in various other countries in the coming months and years. Florbetapir has already gotten EMA approval, and Lilly/Avid is seeking approval in other areas of the world.

Source:  AlzForum website – 21 Nov 2013

The JPND Newsletter brings together a number of relevant JPND news stories for JPND international stakeholder communities.

Contents include highlights of JPND activities, information on JPND-supported projects as well as interviews with JPND Scientific Advisory Board members.

The second edition (November 2013) is availablehere or at the link below.

Researchers studying the natural history of Alzheimer’s disease are grappling with a puzzling group of volunteers—amyloid-free and cognitively normal older adults who show other biomarker evidence of neurodegeneration.

Researchers studying the natural history of Alzheimer’s disease are grappling with a puzzling group of volunteers—amyloid-free and cognitively normal older adults who show other biomarker evidence of neurodegeneration.

Source: AlzForum website – 08 Nov 2013 </time><//time>

JPND is piloting an online partnering tool as an optional support for researchers interested in responding to the 2013 JPND Annual Calls for proposals.

Two JPND Calls for proposals are due to launch in early December, with the indicative call titlesalready released in a pre-call announcement.

A "JPND Partnering Tool" is being made available from November 7th to assist potential applicants to either call in their partnering activities. 

The tool allows researchers to present their research group and expertise in a closed forum, tailored for JPND, thus making it easier for research partners to locate each other and collaborate on a proposal idea.

Researchers can also register a proposal idea and get comments from expert scientists and researchers within the tool. Consortia can then be built around the idea, potentially leading to drafting a proposal on the tool.

It is believed that this tool will especially benefit early-career researchers and research groups not normally included in established consortia. Established researchers can potentially use the tool to find specific expertise which may be missing from their pre-existing consortia.

Call texts, country-specific information, FAQ etc. for both 2013 Calls will be made availableon this page on the Call launch date (early December 2013).

For more information on the tool, clickhere or on the links below. 

The largest international study ever conducted on Alzheimer’s disease, the I-GAP (International Genomics Alzheimer’s Project) consortium has identified eleven new regions of the genome involved in the onset of the disease.

This research gives an overview of the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease, opening up to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of this disease.

These results, detailed inNature Genetics, could not have been obtained without this unique worldwide collaborative effort.

In addition to the well-established association at the APOE locus, they identified 19 genomic regions significantly associated with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, 11 of which are new susceptibility loci. Their findings reinforce pathways previously implicated in Alzheimer’s disease pathology, including immune response, inflammation, cell migration and lipid transport pathways. They also suggest new candidate genes and pathways that may be involved in disease risk.

These 11 new confirmed genes can open new avenues in the understanding of the occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease. Thus one of the most significant associations were found in the region HLA-DRB5/DRB1 major histocompatibility complex. This finding is interesting in several ways. First, it confirms the involvement of the immune system in disease. In addition, this same region is also found associated with two other neurodegenerative diseases, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.

About I-GAP:http://www.alz.org/news_and_events_21649.asp