Held in romantically beautiful Lisbon, this AD/PD was the biggest thus far, drawing 3,982 attendees from 73 countries, according to Abraham Fisher, its longtime lead organizer. But as the field grows, it has little to celebrate, and the mood reflected that. Trialists were appealing for patience and pointing to deepening clinical trials skills as they learn from continuing setbacks on investigational therapies, most recently of lanabecestat, crenezumab, and aducanumab. Trials targeting tau were not yet reading out, but the medical food Souvenaid posted modestly positive results. At the other end of the bench-to-bedside spectrum, basic science is diversifying. Next-gen genetics is spilling out gene variants which, together with RNAseq, are energizing research into glial and lipid biology. Debate about the amyloid hypothesis, a fixture at AD/PD, evolved toward a focus on genetic variability in how a person’s innate immune system responds to amyloid deposition. Aβ itself? Nothing special about it. It aggregates into an irritant as the brain’s ability to degrade it wanes with age. It starts things off, but other factors later dominate the disease. Or so researchers now think. Read Madolyn Rogers and Gabrielle Strobel’s coverage.
