Yearly Archives: 2018

The EU Joint Programme on Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) is inviting proposals from multi-national research teams to increase understanding of the factors that contribute to the quality and delivery of health and social care for neurodegenerative diseases.

Current research suggests strong potential for improving quality of life for those living with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, with novel health and social care concepts and innovations focusing on the preservation of dignity, independence and social inclusion. Nevertheless, the availability and quality of such services vary considerably across Europe and beyond.

In this context, JPND today announced a new call inviting multi-national research teams to submit proposals for ambitious, innovative and multi-disciplinary collaborative projects that address health and social care at both the macro level of systems and infrastructures and the individual level of patients, carers and families.

Professor Philippe Amouyel, Chair of JPND

“Over the past decades, most of the funding has been allocated to basic and translational research with the aim of discovering new treatments,” said Professor Philippe Amouyel, Chair of JPND. “However, immediate impactful developments also come from health and social care research and innovation, including new insights that point to the potential for improved patient empowerment, civic participation, and quality of life. That’s why twenty JPND countries have earmarked €21 million to support multi-national research consortia investigating the strengths and weaknesses of different models of care and potential pathways to implementing improved, evidence-based approaches. Our hope is that this work will lead to the adoption of novel health promotion strategies that will reduce the impact of disease for patients as well as for their families and carers.”

Proposals submitted under this call, which is open to applicants in 20 countries, must relate to any or several of the following neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, prion diseases, motor neuron diseases, Huntington’s disease, spinocerebellar ataxia and spinal muscular atrophy. JPND is committed to Patient and Public Involvement, and proposals are expected to engage patients, carers and the public. Research projects may include, but are not limited to, one or several of the following areas:

Care pathways and programmes using the potential of patient involvement
Factors influencing progression and prognosis of disease
Outcome measures for patients and their informal carers
Palliative care for patients
Cost-effectiveness and affordability of interventions including ethical concerns

Pre-proposals must be submitted no later than 23:59h C.E.T. on March 6, 2018.

For more information about the call, please click here.

The EU Joint Programme on Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) was established to better coordinate research efforts across countries and disciplines to more rapidly find causes, develop cures and identify better ways to care for people with neurodegenerative disease. Today more than 40 million people worldwide are estimated to be living with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders – the most common class of neurodegenerative disease – and this figure is expected to rise in the coming decades. The JPND Research and Innovation Strategy identified research priorities and provided a framework for future investment and is available for download here.

"A novel cognitive-functional composite measure to detect changes in early Alzheimer's disease: Test–retest reliability and feasibility" has been published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring. This work was supported in part by JPND through the EURO-SCD project, selected in the 2013 Preventive Strategies call.

"Existential decision-making in a fatal progressive disease: how much do legal and medical frameworks matter?" has been published in BMC Palliative Care. This work was supported by JPND through the NEEDS in ALS project, selected in the 2012 Healthcare Evaluation call.

Researchers report that intermittent electrical stimulation of an area deep inside the brain that degenerates in Alzheimer's appears to improve working memory. Conversely, continuous deep brain stimulation, like the type used for Parkinson's impairs memory, according to study results in adult non-human primates reported in the journal Current Biology. Intermittent stimulation helped the monkeys to remember things up to five times longer in a standard test of working memory.

In the new studies, scientists used the technique of placing hair-thin electrodes into the brain to deliver electricity and increase the activity of the nucleus basalis of Meynert, a small area in the forebrain that is inexplicably degenerated in both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Their goals included making more of the chemical messenger acetylcholine available in the region. The nucleus basalis has a large concentration of neurons that are connected to brain areas critical for memory and cognition, and under healthy conditions have a ready supply of acetylcholine that enables the important communication between them.

As we age, acetylcholine levels in the brain naturally decrease, but Alzheimer's causes a dramatic multiplier effect, resulting in a shortage.

The researchers started with continuous stimulation, like the clinical approaches, and saw an unexpected decline in performance. Equally surprising, they found intermittent stimulation resulted in more available acetylcholine in the region and better performance.

In fact, use of the cholinesterase inhibitor donepezil restored memory performance in animals that received constant stimulation but had no impact on those whose memory was already enhanced by intermittent stimulation.

The scientists suspect the benefit resulted from the impact of increased levels of acetylcholine directly on neurons and their supportive cells in that region. However it may also result from a slight increase in blood flow to the brain region, they write. Cholinesterase inhibitors, drugs used to treat Alzheimer's, are known to increase blood flow to the brain about 10-15 percent in humans. Blood flow is typically reduced in Alzheimer's.

After months of intermittent stimulation, the monkeys got more adept at the memory test even without the stimulation. The reason for the enduring effect is not 100 percent clear: it could be the brain cells make more connections, it could be more acetylcholine keeps getting released, it could be both, the scientists note.

Paper: "Intermittent Stimulation of the Nucleus Basalis of Meynert Improves Working Memory in Adult Monkeys"

Reprinted from materials provided by the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.