Nature medicine
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Observational Study
Plasma phospholipids identify antecedent memory impairment in older adults.
Alzheimer's disease causes a progressive dementia that currently affects over 35 million individuals worldwide and is expected to affect 115 million by 2050 (ref. 1). There are no cures or disease-modifying therapies, and this may be due to our inability to detect the disease before it has progressed to produce evident memory loss and functional decline. Biomarkers of preclinical disease will be critical to the development of disease-modifying or even preventative therapies. ⋯ Herein, we describe our lipidomic approach to detecting preclinical Alzheimer's disease in a group of cognitively normal older adults. We discovered and validated a set of ten lipids from peripheral blood that predicted phenoconversion to either amnestic mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease within a 2-3 year timeframe with over 90% accuracy. This biomarker panel, reflecting cell membrane integrity, may be sensitive to early neurodegeneration of preclinical Alzheimer's disease.
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For more than four decades, the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) has operated as an independent nonprofit organization with a mission of providing guiding documents on matters of health and biomedical research, many of which are commissioned by the government. The IOM--part of the 151-year-old National Academy of Sciences--issues reports on a wide range of topics, from salt consumption to clinical trial data sharing, and convenes workshops at its headquarters in Washington, DC. The institute counts almost 2,000 experts among its members, including Victor Dzau. ⋯ During his time at Duke, he has broadened the reach of the institution by helping to launch the Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School, the Duke Global Health Institute and the International Partnership for Innovative Healthcare Delivery. Roxanne Khamsi spoke with Dzau about his vision for the IOM. The conversation has been edited for clarity.
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Efficacious new drugs to treat hepatitis C virus infection offer the potential to halt this epidemic. But their exorbitant cost may prove prohibitive for most patients in need. Strong patient and government advocacy will be necessary to ensure that accessibility to treatments is a right, not a privilege.