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• Can Mobile Polling Help Aging Voters?

The July 14, 2008, edition of the AARP Bulletin Today describes Jason Karlawish’s recent efforts to establish and test mobile polling sites in the United States.  Mobile polling would allow “teams of local election workers or trained, nonpartisan volunteers [to] visit assisted living facilities, nursing homes and other such settings to help residents register to vote.”  Already implemented in Germany and Australia, mobile polling can make it especially easier for those with cognitive disabilities the opportunity to exercise their right to vote—a right not so readily permitted in nursing homes and assisted living facilities throughout the country.

Read more in “Mobile Polling—For Those Who Simply Can’t Get to a Voting Booth”.

• AD Research Participation: Informed Consent Complicates Trials

Jason Karlawish, MD, is quoted in two Alzforum.com articles discussing decisional capacity for people with Alzheimer’s Disease who have cognitive impairment. The first part looks at the challenges of enrolling patients into clinical trials for Alzheimer’s Disease and the need for clear guidelines on who is allowed to make decisions about research participation on behalf of adults whose disease prevents them from being able to do so themselves. The second part highlights a study by Dr. Karlawish, published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry earlier this year, which confirms previous work showing that, in general, AD patients and their caregivers supported the use of proxy consent in situations where participants are incapable of giving their own consent to research participation.

Alzforum Part 1

Alzforum Part 2

• Rember as a treatment for Alzheimer's Disease?

The Penn Memory Center has been receiving many calls about experimental medicines for dementia that are being described at this year’s International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease (ICAD) in Chicago.  ICAD is one of the foremost forums for researchers to present new and potentially important scientific and therapeutic findings in the field of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
 
Among the therapies being reported are novel anti-amyloid drugs, some of which are in clinical trials here at the Penn Memory Center, various nutritional and herbal remedies, as well as established and FDA-approved medicines already in use for other illnesses that are being re-investigated for their potential to help Alzheimer’s disease.
 
One of these older medicines is methylthioninium chloride (also known as methylene blue), which has been used for over a century for malaria, urinary infections, and some rare blood diseases. Under the name “Rember,” a new company in England (TauRx Therapeutics) has conducted a Phase II trial in people with Alzheimer’s disease and reported that over the two years of the study, Rember significantly delayed disease progression. The unpublished data has not yet been through the peer review process, and so it is hard for us to judge this old medicine’s new promise. A Phase III trial is reportedly being planned and it is only after confirming the medicine’s benefit and safety with better evidence that we can feel comfortable recommending it.

• “American voters getting older”

On January 31, 2008, Jason Karlawish, MD, testified to the Senate Committee on Aging at a hearing titled "Older Voters: Opportunities and Challenges for the 2008 Election" chaired by Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI).

Click below to:

• link to the Senate Committee on Aging web site to view the web cast.
  
• to read the Associated Press report “American Voters Getting Older”.
  
• to read Dr. Jason Karlawish's testimony.

 

• Annual Marian S. Ware Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Retreat. November 9, 2007.

Oh better drugs where art thou?

In the wake of the first failed Phase 3 trial of a supposedly amyloid-lowering drug, leaders of Alzheimer disease programs at several major pharmaceutical companies came together to discuss drug development at the invitation of Virginia Lee and John Trojanowski.

Click here for to read Pat McCaffrey’s roundup from the Alzheimer Research Forum web site.

• PENN Neurodegenerative Disease Research - In the Spirit of Benjamin Franklin

“Penn Neurodegenerative Disease Research - In the Spirit of Benjamin Franklin” by John Q. Trojanowski (Neurosignals 2008) showcases the strengths of a large and diverse "slice" of neurodegenerative disease research at PENN.

Click here for more information from Penn Medicine News.

Click here to read the abstract on Pubmed.gov.

• A Vaccine for Alzheimer's

A promising Phase II study is now underway at Penn that is helping pave the way for an Alzheimer’s vaccine by eliminating small proteins from coming together to form plaque. Scientists are also researching a protein in the spinal fluid that might be a predictor for the disease.

Please note, we are not presently recruiting for this study.

ABC 6 Action News' HealthCheck with Anita Brikman aired interviews from the Ralston Center with Dr. Clark and patient Mrs. Josephine Feige about the Lilly-Immuno vaccine trial.

Click here to watch the ABC news video

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According to CBS 3 medical reporter Stephanie Stahl — “It could be one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs ever, a way to treat, maybe even prevent Alzheimer's disease and it's being tested in Philadelphia.” She interviewed Dr. Clark and study participant Ada English on February 5, 2007.

Click here to read the CBS 3 story.

Click here to link to the CBS3 news video.

• Home Visits Improve Willingness to Participate in Alzheimer's Clinical Trials

Jason Karlawish, PhD, associate professor of medicine and associate director of the PENN Memory Center, and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania recently completed a study addressing the challenges of recruiting and retaining study participants for Alzheimer's clinical trials. They tested whether redesigned clinical trials might improve caregivers' willingness to participate in Alzheimer's trials by analyzing the value of four possible alterations in the study. June 2007

Click here to read more.

• When Informed Consent is Impossible.. an opinion by Jason Karlawish, M.D. on ABCnews.com

Is research that enrolls patients with Alzheimer's Disease ethical?...an opinion by Jason Karlawish, M.D. on ABC News Health online, January 29, 2007

By definition, Alzheimer's patients have trouble with memory, concentration and attention. They may not be competent to give an informed consent. Without the patient's informed consent, how do we ethically enroll patients with Alzheimer's disease in research?

Click here to connect to ABCnews.com to read the article.

• Philadelphia Inquirer: Probing a Mind for a Cure, February 26, 2006

Bob Moore, diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, donated his brain for autopsy to help doctors learn more about causes and prevention of the disease. Read the article online. ($2.95 fee to view archived articles.)