Alternatives to amyloid for Alzheimer's disease therapies—a symposium report

Abstract

For decades, Alzheimer's disease research has focused on amyloid as the primary pathogenic agent. This focus has driven the development of numerous amyloid‐targeting therapies; however, with one possible exception, none of these therapies have been effective in preventing or delaying cognitive decline in patients, and there are no approved disease‐modifying agents. It is becoming more apparent that alternative drug targets are needed to address this complex disease. An increased understanding of Alzheimer's disease pathology has highlighted the need to target the appropriate disease pathology at the appropriate time in the disease course. Preclinical and early clinical studies have focused on targets, including inflammation, tau, vascular health, and the microbiome. This report summarizes the presentations from a New York Academy of Sciences' one‐day symposium entitled “Alzheimer's Disease Therapeutics: Alternatives to Amyloid,” held on November 20, 2019.

The Role of Formyl Peptide Receptors in Neurological Diseases via Regulating Inflammation

“…Neuroinflammation refers to inflammation that occurs in both central and peripheral nervous system, which involves the glial cells ( Liddelow et al, 2017 ; Yun et al, 2018 ) and perivascular macrophages ( Liddelow et al, 2017 ; Yun et al, 2018 ), and the main role is considered to be microglia ( Colonna and Butovsky, 2017 ; Cable et al, 2020 ). Neuroinflammation is reportedly a complex process involving the coordination of different groups of glial cells, which act as a double-edged sword in this process, depending on the progression of the disease and the inflammatory microenvironment ( Shabab et al, 2017 ; Yang and Zhou, 2019 ).…”

Are in‐person scientific conferences dead or alive?

“…These, like most or all successful meetings, address common psychological needs, which in a simple rendering must attend to feelings of choice, competence, and connectivity. Some organizations, like the New York Academy of Sciences (https://www.nyas.org/events/), provide written commentaries on their conferences 2 …”

“…Some organizations, like the New York Academy of Sciences (https://www.nyas.org/event s/), provide written commentaries on their conferences. 2 As an aside, albeit of less relevance for the type of scientific interchange we focus on while still being worth mentioning, physical meetings such as global conferences (e.g., the World Economic Forum in Davos, Art Biennales, and various world expos) have been extremely valuable from a public relations perspective. These gatherings, including those produced for Nobel Prizes, have as a key purpose the generation of media and public interest in the topics at hand.…”

Exploiting formyl peptide receptor 2 to promote microglial resolution: a new approach to Alzheimer’s disease treatment

“…Inflammation in the central nervous system (CNS) differs markedly from that in the periphery with a relatively limited role for circulating leukocytes, their place largely being taken by central cells including astrocytes [71,82], perivascular macrophages [83] and probably most importantly the microglia [84,85]. Microglia are cells of myeloid origin that migrate into the brain tissue early in development and remain there, monitoring and maintaining the CNS environment [86].…”