Each study has a usefulness score out of 100 (rubric version 4.0). Tap a score to see what makes it up.
Highest usefulness score first. Studies without a score come last.
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Vascular dementia is the second commonest form of dementia, and vascular factors contribute to the development of dementia in many patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Why it matters
In this 6-month double-blind trial, 592 people with probable vascular dementia or Alzheimer's disease plus cerebrovascular disease were randomly given galantamine 24 mg a day (396) or placebo (196). On the ADAS-cog thinking test, the galantamine group improved by 1.7 points while the placebo group worsened by 1.0, a 2.7-point difference. The authors report benefits across "all key areas of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities", but the copy of the abstract we hold is cut off before those other results, so only the thinking-test result can be checked here, and it describes symptoms over 6 months, not a cure or prevention.
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In this prospective cohort study, we included adults aged 40 years or older with subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment, or dementia, based on cognitive test results and clinical assessments, consecutively recruited at two memory clinics in Sweden, as part of the Swedish BioFINDER-2 study.
Why it matters
In this cohort of people with memory complaints or impairment, a positive result for the marker eMTBR-tau243 was linked to worse cognitive decline and more tau accumulation over time in those who already tested positive for p-tau217. This suggests the marker may help identify which patients are likely to worsen, but it is a cohort finding rather than a proven clinical test.
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Between May 18, 2021, and Sept 8, 2023, 9981 participants were screened, of whom 3808 were randomly assigned; 1855 in evoke (semaglutide, n=928; placebo, n=927) and 1953 in evoke+ (semaglutide, n=976; placebo, n=977).
Why it matters
In two phase 3 randomized placebo-controlled trials with 3,808 participants, oral semaglutide 14 mg did not slow clinical progression in early Alzheimer's disease, with no significant difference from placebo on CDR-SB at week 104. Safety and tolerability were consistent with studies in other conditions, so this treatment was not efficacious for slowing early Alzheimer's disease.
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72/100
Of the 120 participants (mean age, 71.4 [SD, 8.6] years; 55% were female), 93 (77.5%) completed the trial.
Why it matters
This trial tested valacyclovir in 120 people with early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease, of whom 93 completed the trial. The available text reports only participant numbers and completion, so no conclusion about whether the treatment worked can be drawn from it.
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These findings demonstrate that plasma p-tau217 can reliably detect AD pathology in the preclinical stage.
Why it matters
This meta-analysis of 7834 participants found plasma p-tau217 identified amyloid-positive people without cognitive impairment with an AUC of 0.87. It supports early detection but does not itself treat, cure, or prevent Alzheimer's disease.
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Participants had a mean (SD) age of 66.9 (9.9) years; 971 (33.3%) were Aβ positive by either CSF or PET, 1667 (57.2%) were women, and 1108 (38.1%) carried at least 1 APOE ε4 allele.
Why it matters
In 2,916 cognitively unimpaired participants, plasma p-tau217 classified amyloid status both as a stand-alone test and in a two-step approach where positive results were confirmed with PET or cerebrospinal fluid. This supports using blood tests to identify preclinical Alzheimer's disease, though the study was cross-sectional.
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Exercise intensity did not differentially affect cognitive trajectory.
Why it matters
In this trial of 296 people with mild cognitive impairment, moderate-high intensity aerobic exercise and low-intensity stretching/balance exercise did not differ in their effects on cognition. Cognition stayed stable over 12 months in both groups, but the study was not designed to show whether exercise prevents dementia.
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Neuroinflammatory biomarkers are associated with AD progression.
Why it matters
Reviewing 54 studies, the authors found that inflammation markers in body fluids track different stages of Alzheimer's: spinal fluid YKL-40 was raised in Alzheimer's dementia, sTREM2 was more tied to early stages, and blood GFAP was raised both in dementia and in people with amyloid but no symptoms. Changes in blood GFAP over time appeared to predict cognitive decline. The authors say more long-term studies are needed before these markers are used routinely for diagnosis and monitoring.
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The mean age was 74.2 years (SD, 8.3 years), 48% were women, 23% had subjective cognitive decline, 44% had mild cognitive impairment, and 33% had dementia.
Why it matters
In a group of older adults ranging from subjective cognitive decline to dementia, a blood test detected Alzheimer's disease with 90% diagnostic accuracy. The percentage of p-tau217 on its own did no worse than the combined APS2 score, which suggests a single blood marker could help detect Alzheimer's in primary and secondary care.
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We demonstrated significant elevations in blood GFAP and YKL-40 levels in patients on the AD continuum compared with CU individuals.
Why it matters
This meta-analysis of 36 studies found that blood levels of GFAP and YKL-40 were higher in people on the Alzheimer's disease continuum than in cognitively unimpaired people, while S100B showed no significant difference. It describes biomarker patterns and does not test any treatment.
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Clinical data supported a delayed onset of cognitive impairment in persons who were heterozygous for the APOE3 Ch variant in a kindred with a high prevalence of autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease.
Why it matters
Among carriers of a PSEN1 mutation causing inherited Alzheimer disease, having one copy of the APOE3 Christchurch variant was linked to a later median age at cognitive impairment onset, 52 versus 47 years. This is a study of a rare inherited form of the disease in one Colombian kindred, so it points to a possible protective mechanism rather than a treatment.
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In participants with early symptomatic AD, zagotenemab failed to achieve significant slowing of clinical disease progression compared with placebo.
Why it matters
In a phase 2 trial of 360 people with early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease, the drug zagotenemab did not slow clinical disease progression compared with placebo, and imaging and blood markers showed no treatment effect. People taking zagotenemab also had more adverse events than those on placebo.
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In this case-control study, blood biomarkers indicative of AD pathology demonstrated different dynamics of change after cardiac arrest.
Why it matters
In people who had out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, serum p-tau rose early in those with poor neurological outcome and then fell, while amyloid-beta levels rose over time in most patients. These Alzheimer-related blood markers changed after cardiac arrest but were only weakly linked to neurological outcome, and the study did not test any Alzheimer treatment.
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We found that the mass spectrometry-based p-tau217 (p-tau217WashU) exhibited significantly better performance than all other plasma p-tau biomarkers when detecting abnormal Aβ status [area under curve (AUC) = 0.947; Pdiff 0.09), but higher compared with AUC of p-tau231UGOT, p-tau181Lilly, p-tau181UGOT, p-tau181Fuji and p-tau181Splex (AUCrange 0.642-0.813; Pdiff ≤ 0.029).
Why it matters
This study compared several blood tests for the protein p-tau in people with mild cognitive impairment. A mass-spectrometry p-tau217 test was best at spotting people with amyloid in the brain (AUC 0.947, against 0.642–0.813 for five other assays) and matched spinal-fluid levels most closely (R = 0.891, against 0.755 for a second p-tau217 test). The authors say the best tests "rival the gold standards of Aβ-PET and CSF" but that the findings need further validation, so it does not establish any blood test as a stand-alone diagnosis.
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Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy neuropathologic change (LATE-NC) and Alzheimer's disease neuropathologic change (ADNC) are each associated with substantial cognitive impairment in aging populations.
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72/100
Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) ε4 genotype was the main risk factor for both ARIA types; ARIA-E incidence was further associated with treatment dose, affecting the 55% of ApoE ε4 carriers in the high-dose aducanumab treatment group.
Why it matters
This review found that amyloid-related imaging abnormalities are common side effects of amyloid-targeting antibody treatments, and that APOE epsilon4 carriers were at highest risk, with 55% of epsilon4 carriers in the high-dose aducanumab group affected. It highlights the need for standardized monitoring, not a cure or prevention.
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72/100
Of 343 participants, the mean (SD) age was 72.56 (7.24) years, and 157 (51.1%) were female.
Why it matters
The available text reports only the age and sex of 343 participants in a cohort study. It provides no information on treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer disease.
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When identifying participants with abnormal CSF Aβ42/40 in the whole cohort, plasma IP-MS-WashU Aβ42/40 showed significantly higher accuracy (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC], 0.86; 95% CI, 0.81-0.90) than LC-MS-Arc Aβ42/40, IA-Elc Aβ42/40, IA-EI Aβ42/40, and IA-N4PE Aβ42/40 (AUC range, 0.69-0.78; P Conclusions and relevance The results from 2 independent cohorts indicate that certain MS-based methods performed better than most of the immunoassays for plasma Aβ42/40 when detecting brain Aβ pathology.
Why it matters
Comparing eight blood tests for the amyloid-beta 42/40 ratio, this study found that certain mass-spectrometry-based methods identified abnormal cerebrospinal fluid amyloid-beta 42/40 more accurately than most of the immunoassays. It is about improving a diagnostic blood test and does not test any treatment, cure or prevention.
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In this review of 56 RCTs for AD involving 39 575 participants, 23 348 women (59.0%) were included.
Why it matters
This systematic review of 56 trials found that women were included at a lower proportion than in the general Alzheimer's disease population and that few trials reported sex-stratified results. It concerns trial diversity and reporting, not treatment, cure, or prevention.
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72/100
Aerobic exercise has shown inconsistent cognitive effects in older adults with Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia.
Why it matters
This randomized controlled trial assigned 96 participants with Alzheimer's disease dementia to 6 months of moderate-intensity cycling or light-intensity stretching and followed them for another 6 months. It tested whether aerobic exercise affects cognition but does not establish a treatment, cure, or prevention for the disease.
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The treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the field of non-pharmacological interventions is a challenging issue, given the limited benefits of the available drugs.
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Whilst cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and positron emission tomography (PET) biomarkers for amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau pathologies are accurate for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), their broad implementation in clinical and trial settings are restricted by high cost and limited accessibility.
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Neuroinflammation commences decades before Alzheimer's disease (AD) clinical onset and represents one of the earliest pathomechanistic alterations throughout the AD continuum.
Why it matters
This review brings together earlier gene and protein studies on brain inflammation in Alzheimer's disease. It lists genes found in large genetic studies (TREM2, CD33, CR1, CLU, ABCA7 and others) that are "potentially linked" to inflammation, and it names microglia and astrocytes as "key cellular drivers and regulators" of that process. It is a map for future research toward tailored treatment: it reports no new data, no patients and no treatment result, and it does not show that these genes cause the disease.
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There was a statistically significant increase in the global estimate of cortical tau burden as measured by standardized uptake value ratio (SUVr) from baseline to 18 months in amyloid-β+ but not amyloid-β- subjects (least squared mean change in flortaucipir SUVr : 0.0524 ± 0.0085, P < 0.0001 and 0.0007 ± 0.0024 P = 0.7850, respectively), and a significant association between magnitude of SUVr increase and baseline tau burden.
Why it matters
In this 18-month longitudinal study, cortical tau burden measured by flortaucipir PET increased significantly in amyloid-beta positive but not amyloid-beta negative participants, and both baseline tau and its change were associated with changes in cognitive performance. The authors describe these results as a preliminary characterization of how tau spreads in Alzheimer's disease.
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Among the 1453 participants in the Framingham dementia study sample, the mean (SD) age was 75 (7) years; 792 (54.5%) were female.
Why it matters
In 1,453 dementia-free Framingham Heart Study participants aged 65+ followed for a median of 6 years, each SD increase in log plasma total tau was associated with a 35% higher risk of Alzheimer's dementia (HR 1.35; 95% CI 1.10-1.67), and higher levels were linked to poorer scores on 7 cognitive tasks. Adding it to age and sex improved risk sorting. The authors suggest it "may be used as a biomarker for risk stratification in dementia prevention trials". It is an association across a group, not a diagnostic test for individuals or a treatment target.
From across this topic
10 of the 5,172 studies in this topic, picked by a fixed rule (a hash of each study's address), not by score or date; each page of this list shows a different 10. The same 10 appear here every time.
- Empty speech in Alzheimer's disease and fluent aphasia
- Cerebrospinal Fluid Amyloid Beta and Tau Concentrations Are Not Modulated by 16 Weeks of Moderate- to High-Intensity Physical Exercise in Patients with Alzheimer Disease
- The probabilistic model of Alzheimer disease: the amyloid hypothesis revised
- Cerebral amyloid-β PET with florbetaben (18F) in patients with Alzheimer's disease and healthy controls: a multicentre phase 2 diagnostic study
- Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarker for Alzheimer Disease Predicts Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction
- Efficacy of language assessment in Alzheimer's disease: comparing in-person examination and telemedicine
- Soluble fibrillar oligomer levels are elevated in Alzheimer's disease brain and correlate with cognitive dysfunction
- Hemispheric differences in hippocampal volume predict verbal and spatial memory performance in patients with Alzheimer's disease
- BIOMARCADORES PLASMÁTICOS NA DETECÇÃO PRECOCE DA DOENÇA DE ALZHEIMER: UMA REVISÃO SISTEMÁTICA
- Potential cognitive enhancing and disease modification effects of SSRIs for Alzheimer's disease