From caregivers going it alone to understaffed nursing homes on lockdown, people with neurodegenerative disease and their caregivers are feeling enormous strain from the novel coronavirus. They are adapting to the new normal with technology.
Most observational cohorts are on pause, and many clinical trials have stopped dosing. The long-term effects on the integrity of AD studies are unclear.
With experiments and careers on hold, scientists working from home are turning to virtual lab meetings and journal clubs to keep up morale.
United Kingdom’s DRI pivots to fight COVID-19. The facility could test 10,000 samples per day.
Under diabetic conditions, SERP1 binds secretase subunit, cranking up cleavage of APP but not Notch. The finding offers a mechanistic link between diabetes and Alzheimer’s.
The slowdown of proteasomes stymied TDP-43’s entry into the nucleus and promoted its aggregation in the cytoplasm.
In a conditional mouse knockout, lack of neuronal BIN1 slowed excitatory signaling, leading to spatial memory problems. Could this play a role in Alzheimer’s?
In the human brain, alpha waves fell out of sync, while delta-theta waves swelled in concert with amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles. Alpha modulation correlated with cognitive decline.
Alzforum encourages users to visit the Virtual Exhibit Hall, where companies showcase their newest initiatives, products, and services. We welcome F. Hoffmann-La Roche, joining our other exhibitors — Biogen, BioLegend, Dash Genomics, Inc., Abcam, BrainXell, and the Jackson Laboratory.
As the new coronavirus rages around the globe, taking lives and bringing down economies, the research community’s collective project to find better treatments for neurodegenerative disease is not spared, either. Research institutes are shuttered, essential mouse strains and cell lines are in danger, and clinical trials and observation studies are having to pause dosing and evaluations. For patients and the carers, social distancing adds enormous stress to already difficult lives. But necessity is the mother of invention and, as in other walks of life these days, the neurodegeneration community is rising to the occasion by moving much of its work online–perhaps even to some lasting benefit. Read accounts by Tom Fagan, Madolyn Rogers, and Jessica Shugart about what COVID-19 is doing to our field, and this story about how the UK DRI quickly tried to help out.
Dear Readers Around the Globe,
As we all scramble to take care of our sick, to protect the vulnerable, and to stay afloat, what is happening to Alzheimer’s disease research and to dementia care? While Alzforum usually informs you about major scientific advances and debates in the field, now is a time to use our platform to share how the Alzheimer’s research community is affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Has your institute shut down? How are patient-derived cell lines and animal models being kept alive? Are you welcoming shelter-at-home to finally draft that important manuscript? Is your memory clinic still seeing patients? Are your clinical trials on pause? How are conference cancellations affecting your research? As you adjust to how life is changing, write to gstrobel@alzforum.org. We will incorporate your experience into our reporting, and provide opportunity for sharing tips on how to cope with this challenge to our collective work.
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