r’s disease a manageable chronic illness, much like diabetes.
Another significant step forward this year has been the development of a simple blood test to detect Alzheimer’s disease. Though it’s not quite ready for prime time, Dr. Carrillo says that when it is, it will be a huge boon to both family practice doctors and research scientists, because they will be able to verify whether someone has the disease quickly and easily, rather than having to do an expensive PET scan or a lumbar puncture (spinal tap).
The pace and scope of Alzheimer’s research has increased dramatically in the past five years. Federal funding has gone from $631 million in 2015 to $3.1 billion in 2021, due in large part to the Alzheimer’s Association’s tireless advocacy on Capitol Hill. And the association’s own funding capacity was given an enormous boost beginning three years ago with the launch of California philanthropist Mikey Hoag’s Part the Cloud initiative. In 2019, Bill Gates added $60 million to the Part the Cloud Fund, which is currently funding more than 60 studies, many of them exploring areas of brain research that go far beyond the emphasis of the past few decades on amyloid plaques and tau protein tangles.
“There’s so much more happening in the aging brain that can contribute to memory loss, to brain cells changing and not holding onto memories or making new ones,” says Dr. Carrillo, making it essential that research “go beyond amyloid and tau alone at this point.” Some of the newest areas the Part the Cloud/Gates partnership are funding include mitochondria (how brain cells use energy and fuel), autophagy/clearance (how brain cells remove waste and debris to avoid clumping), and vascular contributions (how the blood supply to the brain is maintained).
Alzheimer’s research is personal for Dr. Carrillo. Both her mother-in-law and her father-in-law died of the disease. Knowing that she was watching a relentless biological process did not make it easier to see them reach the point where they could no longer create a memory of something that had just happened. But it did increase her already tenacious commitment to Alzheimer’s research. Just as she was fascinated as a student “by the fact that a brain—that is just tissue, it’s cells and blood, and some connective tissue—has the ability to create such an incredible thing as a human being: cognition, our thinking, our feeling, everything that is associated with being human,” Dr. Carrillo remains fascinated by all that scientists are learning about how the brain works, and why it sometimes doesn’t work, and what she and her colleagues can do about that.
More on Alzheimer’s Studies
The kind of lifestyle changes on which the FINGER and US POINTER studies are focused have long been gaining traction in the Pacific Northwest. Launched in 2013 (and featured in 3rd Act in 2016), Momentia Seattle is a one-stop source for people with dementia and their families to find ways to remain active and connected to the community. (Their website is currently chock-full of virtual offerings.) Momentia was one of several organizations and individuals recently honored with a 2020 Maude Award for innovations in Alzheimer’s care.
In Portland, Dr. Raina Croff is leading the SHARP study: Sharing History through Active Reminiscence and Photo-Imagery, which is funded in part by the Alzheimer’s Association. Working with the PreSERVE Coalition for African American Memory and Brain Health, Dr. Croff and her team accompany older Black adults on vigorous walks focused on “active reminiscence” of their changing neighborhoods. Photos and news clippings are deployed to help them remember what was there before.
“We documented that the combination of vigorous walks and active reminiscence correlated with more energy, improved mood and modest improvement in cognitive assessments, particularly among those with mild cognitive impairment,” Dr. Croff, an assistant professor of neurology and medical anthropologist at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) School of Medicine, wrote in a recent article. “SHARP walkers are not o