In a mice study published in Alzheimer's Research & Therapy , researchers at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center found an experimental vaccine designed to hold off Alzheimer's had promising results, reports USA Today . UT Southwestern Professor Doris Lambracht-Washington said the vaccine could potentially extend lives by preventing Alzheimer's development. Testing in mice revealed that the vaccine safely prevents the accumulation of substances in the brain associated with Alzheimer's, and it could reduce the number of dementia diagnoses by 50 percent if the vaccine proves safe and effective in human trials. "If the onset of the disease could be delayed by even five years, that would be enormous for people with Alzheimer's and their families," said Lambracht-Washington. "The number of dementia cases could drop by half." The vaccine operates by prompting the body to generate antibodies inhibiting the buildup of the amyloid and tau proteins.

An annual cost-of-care survey conducted by Genworth Financial found that costs for senior care continue to rise across the country, climbing an average 3 percent from 2017 to 2018, with some care categories exceeding two to three times the 2.1 percent inflation rate, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch . This is consistent for long-term care such as nursing communities and at-home care in Virginia, though assisted living costs have fallen slightly this year. In the state, costs rose from 2017 to 2018 for adult day care and nursing community care, while the biggest increase was for a private room in a nursing community, climbing nearly 7.7 percent to an average annual cost of $102,200. However, costs for assisted living communities dropped 1.25 percent to a median of $53,415. This still tops the average national cost of $48,000, although costs rose nationally by nearly 6.7 percent from 2017 to 2018. The cost of adult day care services in Virginia rose about 3.1 percent to $18,200, compared with a 2.8 percent increase nationally to $18,720. Genworth's Gordon Saunders cites factors underlying the cost hike, including a shortfall of skilled long-term care workers, the growing incidence of Alzheimer's and dementia, and higher demand for communities with better amenities.

Wellesley College researcher Courtney Coile notes in a new National Bureau of Economic Research study that public policy may have a role to play in the increasing likelihood of older workers continuing their employment, reports the Royal Oak Daily Tribune . Coile says changes to the Social Security program have made it easier for older Americans to work without incurring financial losses. Social Security Act amendments passed in 1993 established an incentive for working later in life by boosting payouts for people who delayed retirement and by lifting the official retirement age. In 2000, the Senior Citizens' Freedom to Work Act revised the Social Security earnings test, making it unnecessary for those who retired late. The cumulative effect was to reduce the implicit tax on work between the ages of 65 and 69 by about 15 percentage points. Worth noting is that public policy's increasing permissiveness for late-in-life work coincided with employers' transition from defined-benefit pension plans to defined-contribution plans. All these factors should continue to encourage older Americans to maintain employment in greater numbers.

There is a growing body of research suggesting companion animals play an important role in the health and well-being of many seniors, but this practice can present unexpected challenges, reports the Chattanooga Times Free Press . Certain sources of stress that usually occur later in life — chronic disease, reduced mobility, bereavement, or lower socioeconomic status with retirement — put older people at risk for psychological distress that a pet may help ameliorate. However, the University of Tennessee (UT) Knoxville's Elizabeth Strand notes economic difficulties, physical or cognitive decline, and changing living situations that become more likely with age can make pet ownership a "mixed blessing" for seniors. She says pets can become especially problematic if a senior must give up an animal to relocate to an assisted living or nursing community. Even when family or friends are willing to assist, complex ethical dilemmas over pet ownership and veterinary care crop up, so owners should establish backup plans for their animals early in life. Strand says some communities have creative programs for aging individuals requiring animal care services, like students from UT's College of Veterinary Medicine delivering meals on wheels for pets.

A study published in Nature suggests Alzheimer's could be promoted by the genomic scrambling, or somatic recombination, of neurons, according to Science . The researchers analyzed neurons from the donated brains of six healthy seniors and seven individuals who had the noninherited form of Alzheimer's. The team tested whether the neurons exhibited different versions of the gene for the amyloid precursor protein (APP), the source of the plaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. According to the analysis, the neurons appear to carry thousands of APP variants. Some changes involved switching single nucleotide bases, while others jettisoned whole chunks of DNA with the remaining sections knitting together. In addition, neurons from people with Alzheimer's contained about six times as many APP gene variants as did those from the healthy people. Alterations in the neurons of people who had Alzheimer's included 11 mutations that occur in the inherited forms of the disease, while cells from the subjects who died without the disease lacked these mutations. The implication is that while somatic recombination may benefit neurons by enabling them to generate various APP versions that enhance brain functions, it also may encourage Alzheimer's in certain people by producing damaging versions of APP or by harming neurons in other ways.

Although National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to fund Alzheimer's research have tripled to $1.9 billion annually from 2015 to 2018, experts say this funding level is insufficient, reports AZBigMedia.com . "Cancers and HIV and other diseases that are in the top five in our country are still receiving way more than what we are, and it's not enough," notes James Fitzpatrick with the Desert Southwest Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. Arizona State University (ASU) Professor Edward Ofori says greater funding would boost the chances of finding a cure for Alzheimer's. Meanwhile, ASU Professor Paul Coleman says NIH only funds 5 percent to 7 percent of grant proposals, calling it an "impediment to progress." "It's my opinion that the devotion of a number of people looking at plaques and tangles has interfered with real progress in understanding what's going on with Alzheimer's disease," he contends. "Now NIH and other branding agencies have reached a point where they're saying either they don't want to fund research on plaques and tangles at all." Coleman says epigenetics should be a major research priority going forward, while Banner Alzheimer's Institute Executive Director Eric Reiman wants annual Alzheimer's research funding to reach $3 billion, with parallel tracks focusing on traditional research and unexplored areas.

A study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry found video chatting platforms can mitigate depression in older adults, reports the Economic Times . The researchers' comparison of video chat, email, social networks, and instant messaging used by men and women 60 and older determined video chat to be most effective in combating depression symptoms. The team identified 1,424 participants from a 2012 survey who completed a questionnaire about technology use, and also responded to a follow-up survey in 2014 that measured depressive symptoms. Users of email, instant messaging, or social media platforms like Facebook had virtually the same rate of depressive symptoms compared with older adults who did not use any communication technologies. However, participants who used video chat platforms such as Skype and FaceTime had nearly half the estimated likelihood of depressive symptoms, after adjusting for factors like pre-existing depression and level of education. "To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate a potential link between use of video chat and prevention of clinically significant symptoms of depression over two years in older adults," the researchers say.

A study presented at the Society for Endocrinology BES annual meeting determined older adults hospitalized for acute illness with a low vitamin D level are more likely to have a longer length of stay, higher rates of falling, and a higher mortality rate compared to inpatients with a higher vitamin D level, reports Healio . "These results do not infer causality, and it may be that the vitamin D function is simply a marker of baseline reductions in a person's physical function," says Coventry University Professor Zaki Hassan-Smith. The researchers analyzed data from 1,332 persons older than 65 admitted to acute medicine between January 2017 and January 2018, identified by health informatics. A cohort of 766 subjects underwent vitamin D status assessment, with a median serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level of 31 nmol/L. Participants in the lowest quartile for vitamin D tended to have a longer length of stay compared to those in the highest quartile, as well as lower abbreviated mental test scores, higher Waterlow ulcer-risk scores, and a trend toward higher fall scores and lower Manchester mobility scores. "We would like to see large-scale vitamin D supplementation studies in acutely unwell persons to investigate these associations further," concluded Hassan-Smith.

Bringing advanced technologies like the Alexa digital assistant to seniors could lead to insights on successful product design by monitoring its use by older adults, reports ZDNet . K4Connect founder Scott Moody stresses a well-designed product should offer a smooth user experience for everyone, including the disabled and the physically challenged. K4Connect offers a multi-modal software platform that integrates it all into a system with a single user interface with voice, touch, and ultimately gesture control. The firm's K4Community service provides this platform to senior living communities, enabling administrators to integrate whatever wellness, connectivity, or automation products they desire. Residents can use the platform to sign up for community activities, order food, or request transportation, while caregivers and community staff can avail themselves of data as well. Moody notes seniors present unique challenges for marketing voice-activated assistants, like adjusting for "the cadence of the user's voice, acuity levels, maybe, as you get much older," in addition to "the voice tone, the voice frequencies."

A study from the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center published in Alzheimer's Research & Therapy details how a novel DNA vaccine can successfully reduce the accumulation of two toxic proteins — amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary tau tangles — associated with the progression of Alzheimer's, reports New Atlas . The researchers' active immunization approach entails administering a vaccine that stimulates the body's immune system to produce its own antibodies. The vaccine does not lead to negative inflammatory effects, and is the first antibody or vaccine treatment to target both amyloid and tau pathologies concurrently. Administering the DNA vaccine into superficial skin cells, rather than intra-muscular injection, appears to be a safer alternative that could evade some of the more adverse autoimmune responses observed in previous trials. "This study is the culmination of a decade of research that has repeatedly demonstrated that this vaccine can effectively and safely target in animal models what we think may cause Alzheimer's disease," says UT Southwestern's Roger Rosenberg. "I believe we're getting close to testing this therapy in people."