A $3 million gift from the Norman and Mary Pattiz Foundation will support promising research for Alzheimer’s disease at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, including novel drug discovery and other efforts aimed at early detection and prevention. The newly created Norman and Mary Pattiz Alzheimer’s Research Fund will provide pilot funding and accelerate priority projects of the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC). The gift will help fund an interdisciplinary team at the USC Center for Personalized Brain Health (CPBH) which is targeting a family of enzymes that can increase the risk of inflammation in the brains of people with the APOE4 gene variation—the most significant genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s—as a way to prevent the disease. In addition to drug targeting which includes imaging modality development, and the use of artificial intelligence to pinpoint small molecules involved in brain inflammation, the fund will also support efforts to modernize the center’s brain pathology library and look at brain inflammation markers in patients with Alzheimer's. Also made possible by the funding will be a plan to create a registry for early detection of individuals at high risk for neuro-inflammation based on the APOE4 genetic variant and cardiovascular risk factors. 

research team from KAIST, Chonnam National University, KRIBB, and KBSI develops a prodrug that works in the Alzheimer’s disease brain

peroxide, a dementia-associated causative substance, is used as a therapeutic signal, reducing side effects and enhancing dementia treatment efficacy

A study published in Neurology involving people over age 80 shows that the presence of Alzheimer’s disease biology can identify patients at greater risk of progressing to dementia, even when initial cognitive differences are subtle.

The use of biomarkers, particularly blood-based biomarkers such as p-Tau217, improves diagnostic accuracy in a population in which clinical assessment is limited by the coexistence of multiple conditions.

The arrival of new drugs that slow disease progression reinforces the need for earlier and more accurate diagnosis, including in older patients who could benefit from these therapies.