Rethinking the 'One-Size-Fits-All' Approach to Alzheimer's Precision Medicine

The U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging (NIA) 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Research Summit highlighted precision medicine in Alzheimer's disease, with NIA's Eliezer Masliah stressing, "we need to start differentiating people with Alzheimer's based on genetics, environmental exposure, and clinical history," reports MedPage Today . Experts at the event suggested recommendations to direct future research in Alzheimer's and related dementias, based on frameworks developed in 2012 and 2015. Attendees talked about research concerning neurotrophic growth factor, brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene therapy, neuroprotective effects of allopregnanolone, the brain-gut microbiota axis in Alzheimer's, and studies into the MIND diet and cognitive decline, as well as the EXERT trial of exercise in people with mild memory difficulties. Masliah said data sharing will be essential to the development of precision medicine in Alzheimer's. He noted that multidimensional comprehension of the disease requires more than "one person working in isolation in a lab. We need tremendous sharing of data among many, many different groups according to precision medicine ideals. Open access is a very important component."