Canada recently approved lecanemab to treat early Alzheimer disease, but the clinical benefits are modest, it carries a risk of serious adverse effects, and treatment is complex. An article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.260193 provides an overview of the medication and advises health care professionals to engage in shared decision-making with patients and caregivers to help them understand potential risks and benefits.

Women with Parkinson's disease may be more vulnerable to Alzheimer's-related changes in the brain than men, according to new research presented at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress 2026.

Prior research has linked the presence of a protein named GDF15 in blood plasma with heightened dementia risk in late life. Now, a study suggests GDF15’s status as a biomarker for dementia may hold true even in midlife. The work, involving 6 large cohorts including a subset of the UK Biobank, correlates elevated levels of the protein in people younger than 55 years old with the later development of dementia – and vascular dementia in particular. The presence of elevated plasma GDF15 in late life is known to correlate with dementia risk. However, debate has remained about the protein’s status as a harbinger of risk starting in mid-life, before age 55. Cassandra Blew and colleagues now provide more evidence linking higher levels of plasma GDF15 in midlife with dementia risk. They evaluated data from 6 cohorts, featuring half a million people from the UK Biobank, more than 15,000 people from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, roughly 5,700 people from the AGES-Reykjavik Study, and more. Follow-up periods within each cohort varied from 15 to 25 years. Analyses established elevated GDF15 as a significant biomarker for dementia, neurodegeneration, and related neuro-immune activation. The magnitude of GDF15’s significance was especially pronounced in vascular dementia, showing roughly 2 to 5 times more strength as an indicator for this type of dementia than for Alzheimer’s disease. Blew et al. also conducted Mendelian randomization analyses, which corroboratively associated GDF15 with neurodegeneration, phosphorylated tau, cerebral small vessel disease, and a protein signature in cerebral spinal fluid indicative of neuro-immune activation. The team then exposed cultured bone marrow cells to recombinant GDF15, confirming that the protein influenced pathways known to correlate with dementia risk.