According to the Associated Press , Moderna on Monday said it was asking U.S. and European regulators to permit emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine as new study results verify the inoculations offer strong protection. Moderna collaborated with the U.S. National Institutes of Health on the shots, with results suggesting the vaccine is more than 94 percent effective. Of 196 COVID-19 cases so far in the U.S. trial, 185 participants received a placebo and 11 got the vaccine. The only people who became severely ill — 30 participants, including one who died — had placebo. Moderna said the vaccinations' efficacy and a good safety record thus far mean they fulfill Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements for emergency use before final-stage testing is complete. The European Medicines Agency has also indicated it is amenable to faster "conditional" clearance. If the FDA sanctions emergency use, Moderna expects to have 20 million doses ready for Americans by year's end, which should serve 10 million people.

Technology Networks reports that a new study in Science Translational Medicine determined that the secretion of tau protein is driven by tiny malfunctioning compartments — known as endosomes — within the brain's neurons, suggesting that they are commonly involved in the manifestation of Alzheimer's disease. Endosomal trafficking is disrupted in about 70 percent of study participants, including those only exhibiting the first symptoms of Alzheimer's. The researchers analyzed the spinal fluid of mice with the same endosomal trafficking dysfunction for proteins that differed from that in normal animals. Three proteins stood apart: two (n-APLP1 and n-CHL1) were cleaved proteins secreted by endosomes, while tau was the third. Analysis of human spinal fluid using new biomarkers of n-APLP1 and n-CHL1 and established biomarkers of tau uncovered a close relationship between the three proteins, suggesting that tau is normally secreted from the endosomal pathway. All three proteins are abnormally elevated in spinal fluid in approximately 70 percent of patients, even in those in the early "prodromal" stage of Alzheimer's disease. The authors are testing compounds to see if they can improve the endosome's trafficking function in animal models of Alzheimer's disease.

Next Avenue reports that a study by the University of California, San Francisco's Ashwin Kotwal in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society considered the effects of COVID-19 on seniors, which are likely to be compounded during the holiday season. Biweekly interviews with a cross-section of 151 older men and women in the San Francisco Bay Area uncovered loneliness and social isolation, with more than half of respondents attributing "worsened feelings of loneliness" directly to the pandemic. A key factor in this isolation is lack of comfort or familiarity with Internet and technology-based engagement, and nearly half of respondents reported no "video-based socializing." One in four said they lacked even the most basic Internet-based connections, such as e-mail. Yet Kotwal is encouraged by the finding that some older people have found ways to cope, and some of the feelings of isolation have diminished over time with activities like book clubs and dance classes online. "In some cases, concerned loved ones started checking in more often by phone, too."

SimplyWise's November Retirement Confidence Index estimated that 47 percent of Americans have been targeted by a Social Security scam in the past three months, reports CNBC . Seniors comprised 53 percent of those targeted, of whom 21 percent received more than three fraud attempts. While the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) last year established a new hotline to report scams and the Department of Justice has filed civil actions against telecom companies for knowingly passing along bogus calls, they have not been sufficient deterrents. The SSA said text messages that use the same language as scam robocalls are popping up, as are e-mails with documents that look legitimate. Certain telltales can signal fraudulent phone calls, such as if they are unsolicited, threaten legal action, and ask that recipients not tell others about them. Protective measures recommended against these scams include hanging up immediately, being wary of texts or e-mail notifications that make similar demands, and never giving out one's Social Security number. Fraudsters also can be reported to the SSA through its Inspector General website .

A study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in Molecular Neurodegeneration analyzed the occurrence and regional distribution of Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in the brains of people with Down's syndrome, reports News-Medical . Up to 90 percent of people with Down's syndrome develop Alzheimer's disease if they live long enough. People with Down's syndrome have an extra copy of chromosome 21, and one reason for the high incidence of Alzheimer's in such individuals is that the gene coding for the production of amyloid is sited on chromosome 21, which can cause amyloid to build up in the brain in childhood. The study revealed that the incidence of the tau protein in the brain tissue of people with Down's syndrome and Alzheimer's was higher than in people with Alzheimer's but without Down's syndrome, implying that tau is an early change in Down's syndrome. The presence of tau also was detected in the brain tissue of fetuses with Down's syndrome, and the researchers think early prophylactic measures against tau accumulation could prevent the development of Alzheimer's pathology in childhood for this group. "Our studies support the need for continued research on the progress and incidence of amyloid plaque and tau in the brain by imaging the brains of live individuals with Down's syndrome," said Karolinska Institutet Professor Agneta Nordberg.

Texas A&M Today reports that Texas A&M University researchers are developing a mobile solution to find senior care in the United States. Through their Olera application, the team hopes to provide a resource for children or spouses of aged individuals needing professional care and connect them to local care options. "This not only lowers the stress involved with finding care, but it drastically reduces the time that this process would otherwise take," said Texas A&M's Carter Radocha. "Upon logging in, users will have the ability to filter local options by price, location, and offered medical services, information that would otherwise be time consuming to obtain." Radocha added that the researchers expect Olera "will redefine how people seek senior care. Having one consolidated resource that is simplified and easy to use for anyone can significantly reduce the time spent seeking out care and increase first time matching of a care option for a senior." The team intends to roll out a limited beta test and refine the product, and is engaged in the process of organizing an LLC and reaching out to early adopters. "Currently, we have a hardworking team of eight students, a prototype, and several early adopters who are eager for our product launch," said Texas A&M's TJ Falohun. "By keeping the needs of our users first, we believe we can overcome any obstacles that may arise and create a digital platform that will revolutionize senior and dementia care."

University at Buffalo (UB) research in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that medication overprescribing by U.S. seniors is driving up hospitalizations and out-of-pocket costs, reports WBFO-FM . Out of 218 million older adults surveyed, 34 percent were prescribed at least one potentially inappropriate drug on the Beers Criteria. Seniors who were prescribed inappropriate medication were nearly twice as likely to be hospitalized or go to the emergency room, and more likely to visit a primary care physician. Researchers determined that these visits, in addition to the price of medications, cost older adults on average about $450 annually. UB Professor Collin Clark suggested doctors may decide to prescribe potentially dangerous medications to older adults because they see the benefit offsetting the risk, or they may not want to take someone off a medication if there have not been any negative side effects. Moreover, the Beers Criteria makes exceptions for certain medications, depending on a patient's condition, and the researchers did their best to factor these exceptions into their data calculations. UB Professor David Jacobs emphasized the importance of patients voicing their concerns about medication prescriptions.

Executives and frontline providers at Iora Health, Oak Street Health, ChenMed, and Landmark Health offer suggestions to primary healthcare providers to maximize the value of telehealth among senior patients, reports Harvard Business Review . "Video visits provide so much more information than telephonic visits: 'Does the patient look sick?' 'What is his home environment like?'," says Iora Health CEO Rushika Fernandopulle. ChenMed Chief Growth Officer Gaurav Dayal supports additional information technology investments "to create an easy-to-use, safe, and secure video visit experience." Because older patients can lack access to the Internet or appropriate devices, Iora and Oak Street provide tablets to remedy this problem. Also concerning is that seniors may suffer medical conditions that impede their use of telehealth, and solutions include Landmark's engagement of non-clinician caregivers — mainly patients' family members — in telehealth visits to enable communication between patient and doctor. A third strategy involves "practice visits," like those organized by Iora and Oak Street, to assist patients with telehealth technology but limited digital literacy. In dealing with highest-risk patients who require regular monitoring of their vital signs, all four providers took steps to add objective physical measurements to telehealth visits.

StudyFinds reports that researchers used data from the English Longitudinal Study On Aging to identify loneliness as a separate risk factor from other problems in older people leading to hospitalization. The study in Thorax looked at 4,478 people, combining death statistics with hospitalization records. "This research study . . . does raise questions as to if, and how, hospital admissions for other respiratory conditions such as COVID-19 may be related to social factors such as isolation in addition to biomedical factors," said University College London's Daisy Fancourt. Additional variables factored into the analysis included the subject's gender, ethnicity, education, household income, underlying health issues, undiagnosed cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lifestyle choices. Over a period of 9.5 years, about 10 percent of participants were hospitalized for respiratory disease, and factors like loneliness and social contact with family did not appear to be associated with their visit. Yet living alone and poor social engagement did play a role in their hospitalization, with the chances of needing emergency care growing by 32 percent and 24 percent, respectively. Socially inactive individuals were also more likely to be physically inactive and smoke more. Finally, they were less likely to see a doctor even when symptoms cropped up.

WWMT Newschannel 3 reports that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is offering some virtual Thanksgiving-themed social hours this week to help older adults connect with family and friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants can link to the first social hour at 3 p.m. on Thursday. The state health department's aging and adult services agency teamed up with GetSetUp to provide the activities, which include classes and social hours online and via phone. Older Michiganders also can access more than 150 free online group classes engineered for and led by older adults. Popular classes include using a smartphone or tablet; employing services like videoconferencing, Gmail, Facebook, and YouTube; and virtual social hours.