Drug Development.

Background: Developing drugs for treating Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been extremely challenging and costly due to limited knowledge on underlying biological mechanisms and therapeutic targets. Repurposing drugs or their combination has shown potential in accelerating drug development due to the reduced drug toxicity while targeting multiple pathologies.

Method: To address the challenge in AD drug development, we developed a multi-task machine learning pipeline to integrate a comprehensive knowledge graph on biological/pharmacological interactions and multi-level evidence on drug efficacy, to identify repurposable drugs and their combination candidates RESULT: Using the drug embedding from the heterogeneous graph representation model, we ranked drug candidates based on evidence from post-treatment transcriptomic patterns, mechanistic efficacy in preclinical models, population-based treatment effect, and Phase 2/3 clinical trials.

Drug Development.

Background: Accumulation of amyloid beta 42 (Aβ42) senile plaques is the most critical event leading to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Currently approved drugs for AD have not been able to effectively modify the disease. This has caused increasing research interests in health beneficial nutritious plant foods as viable alternative therapy to prevent or manage AD.

Drug Development.

Background: Iron is vital for metabolism but can act as a catalyst for oxidative damage. Elevated brain iron, determined from biomarkers of iron (CSF ferritin and quantitative susceptibility mapping MRI) and from post-mortem measurement of brain iron, has been associated with accelerated cognitive decline in multiple Alzheimer's disease (AD) clinical, cohorts. These findings supported the hypothesis that treatment with the brain-permeable iron chelator deferiprone may be associated clinical benefit in AD.

Drug Development.

Background: Findings regarding the protective effect of Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) against Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) and cognitive decline have been inconclusive.

Method: A total of 6,390,826 hypertensive individuals were included in this study from Optum's de-identified Clinformatics® Data Mart. We identified antihypertensive medication (AHM) drug classes and subclassified ARBs by blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability.

Drug Development.

Real-world data on the uptake, effectiveness and safety of new diagnostics and disease-modifying (DMT) treatments for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) are imperative. This can be achieved through patient registries. A major challenge is how to embed registry data capture into routine clinical practice.

Drug Development.

Background: ABCA1-mediated cholesterol transport is a central feature in many lipid- dependent diseases including APOE4-associated Alzheimer's disease and atherosclerosis-CVD. ABCA1 upregulation of RNA transcription by nuclear factors (LXR, RXR) have been associated with liver side-effects because of the common promotor element for ABCA1 and Fatty Acid Synthase. The ABCA1 agonist CS6253, derived from the C-terminal of apoE was designed to stabilize and enhance ABCA1 function, thereby providing a safe alternative to transcriptional upregulation.

Drug Development.

Background: The prohibitive costs of drug development for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) emphasize the need for alternative in silico drug repositioning strategies. Graph learning algorithms, capable of learning intrinsic features from complex network structures, can leverage existing databases of biological interactions to improve predictions in drug efficacy. We developed a novel machine learning framework, the PreSiBOGNN, that integrates muti-modal information to predict cognitive improvement at the subject level for precision medicine in AD.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: The progressive nature of dementia and the complex needs means that people living with dementia require tailored approaches to address their changing care needs over time. These include physical multimorbidity, psychological, behavioural, and cognitive symptoms and possible risks arising from these and helping family caregivers. However, provision of these interventions is highly variable between and within countries, partly due to uncertainty about their efficacy and scarce resources.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: Currently ∼50% of people with dementia experience behavioural symptoms linked to unmanaged distress. Effective and safe management of these symptoms is critical to maintain the quality of life and overall care of people with dementia. Technological solutions have the potential to help with research into these symptoms.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: People with dementia and their care givers are provided limited guidance in medication management, potentially contributing to medication-related harm. Importantly, there are no resources that provide comprehensive medication management guidance across care settings. To ensure that resources are co-designed, genuine involvement of people with dementia, their care givers and the community in identifying the priorities for medication management guidance resources is needed.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: People with dementia of all ages have a human right to equal access to quality health care. Despite evidence regarding its effectiveness, many people living with dementia lack access to evidence-based rehabilitation for promoting function and quality of life. The aims of this study were to 1) explore barriers to access to dementia rehabilitation; and 2) identify solutions which improve access to rehabilitation.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: MATCH (Music Attuned Technology - Care via eHealth) is a music and health application that supports caregivers of people living with dementia to use music strategically to better manage care through virtual training and intuitive music technology. This study trialled a prototype version of the MATCH app with family caregivers and people with dementia residing in the community.

Method: 16 Dyads trialled the prototype MATCH app.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: Our authors from around the world met to summarise the available knowledge, decide which potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia have compelling evidence and create the most comprehensive analysis to date for potentially modifiable risk factors to inform policy, give individuals the opportunity to control their risks and generate research.

Method: We incorporated all risk factors for which we judged there was strong enough evidence. We used the largest recent worldwide meta-analyses for risk factor prevalence and relative risk and if not available the best data.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: The Promoting Independence Through quality Care at Home (PITCH) project aimed to improve outcomes for people with dementia and their carers via a co-designed training intervention for home care workers (HCWs). The results of the primary efficacy analysis of the successful stepped-wedge cluster RCT (n = 172 HCWs in 18 clusters in 7 Australian service providers) were presented at AAIC 2023.

Method: This presentation goes beyond efficacy and discusses the implementation science (process evaluation and behavioural change) and health economic analysis of the intervention.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: Changes in sleep patterns are common in Alzheimer's disease and impact the quality of life of both people living with Alzheimer's (PLWA) and their caregivers. Longitudinal recordings and assessment of night-to-night variations in sleep and physiology can improve our understanding of how sleep influences clinical outcomes and caregiver wellbeing.

Method: We collected sleep diary and contactless sleep technology data (Withings sleep analyser, WSA) in community dwelling PLWA (N = 16, Age = 72.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: Family caregivers to persons living with dementia are at risk of financial strain from the high out-of-pocket costs of care and reduced employment opportunities. Financial strain disproportionately affects U.S.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: Studies show that tube feeding does not improve clinical outcomes, and professional guidelines recommend against its use for individuals with advanced dementia. Yet, our preliminary work demonstrates a preference for tube feeding among Chinese-American dementia caregivers. We propose linguistic and cultural adaptation of "Making Choices: Feeding Options for Patients with Dementia (MCFODA) to create the Chinese version of this efficacious decision aid intervention.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: Mealtime is a fundamental daily activity to ensure nutrition, social interaction, and enjoyment of food for people with dementia (PWD). Interventions addressing multilevel barriers are critical to optimize mealtime care and outcomes. This review aimed to synthesize existing interventions on mealtime care and outcomes in PWD and their caregivers.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: Research on cognitive reserve (CR) in individuals aged 80 years old and above has resulted in inconsistent findings, mostly showing a relationship with baseline cognitive abilities but not follow up assessments. The effects of amyloid burden on the relationship between CR, cognitive decline and dementia in oldest old warrants further study in the presence of APOE e4. We hypothesised that CR in oldest old (≥80 yrs old) adults will result in different trajectories, depending on being amyloid PET positive or negative.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: Nursing home (NH) residents with dementia commonly experience mealtime behaviors that negatively impact nutrition and function. Residents do not receive person-centered mealtime care (PCMC) due to multilevel factors one prioritized modifiable factor is lack of effective PCMC programs. This study aimed to develop a PCMC program and test its feasibility, acceptability, usefulness and preliminary efficacy.

Measurement Invariance of the First Years Inventory (FYIv3.1) Across Age and Sex for Early Detection of Autism in a Community Sample of Infants.

The use of parent-report screeners for early detection of autism is time- and cost-efficient in clinical settings but their utility may vary by respondent characteristics. This study aimed to examine the degree to which infants' age and sex impacted parental reports of early behavioral signs of autism captured by the First Years Inventory Version 3.1 (FYIv3.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: Historically underrepresented populations experience a disproportionate burden of Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's disease related dementias (AD/ADRD) compared to White populations. As a salient resource for coping in Black communities, spiritual and religious practice may support better cognitive health, but it is unknown if changes in these practices are related to cognitive decline.

Methods: We analyzed secondary data of cognitively normal (via Consensus Conference at enrollment) older adults in the U.

Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: Cognitive care planning-the process of regularly and systematically assessing patient needs and documenting recommendations to address them-improves health and quality of life among patients with cognitive impairments, like Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). A cognitive care plan may promote physical exercise, social engagement, healthier eating, medication recommendations, and overall improvement in care management (e.g.

Three-Month Polysubstance Use Patterns Among People Enrolled in Outpatient Treatment for Methamphetamine Use.

Background: Polysubstance use is common among people who use methamphetamine. This prospective study examined the three-month polysubstance use profiles among people enrolled in outpatient treatment for methamphetamine use and associated substance use, mental health, and treatment correlates.

Method: The present study used routinely collected client-reported outcome measures data from  = 1,507 clients enrolled in outpatient treatment who reported methamphetamine as their primary drug of concern ( = 34.