Cognitive deficit

• The test helps healthcare providers better determine the presence of amyloid plaques in the brain, a hallmark sign of Alzheimer’s disease.
• The new research, “ Use of a Blood Biomarker Test Improves Economic Utility in the Evaluation of Older Patients Presenting with Cognitive Impairment ,” used a budget impact model in a hypothetical 1 million-member health plan to assess the economic utility of the PrecivityAD blood test.
• Overall, the PrecivityAD blood test was associated with a cost savings of $643 per Alzheimer’s disease case (9% cost savings) identified.
• We believe the use of the PrecivityAD blood test in the clinical care pathway may prevent unnecessary testing, provide cost savings and reduce the burden on both patients and health plans.”

• Research over recent years also suggests our gut bacteria may have a role in helping us maintain our brain health as we age.
• My own preliminary research suggests one gut bug in particular called Asaccharobacter celatus (A celatus) could be useful.

Cognitive impairment and dementia

• Worryingly, this often progresses to more severe impairment of brain function known as dementia.
• Dementia affects more than 55 million people around the world, and projections suggest this number will increase to 82 million by 2030.

How gut bacteria could help

• The bacteria in our gut perform functions that benefit our overall health.
• A celatus, along with certain other bacteria, is capable of producing a compound known as equol.
• These bacteria make equol from a compound called daidzein, which is found in soy products including soy milk, tofu and tempeh.

• In many cases, we can influence the make-up of our gut bacteria through our diet, and this appears to be true for A celatus.
• Read more:
  Gut bacteria rewind ageing brain in mice

  However, other research has shown consumption of soy foods in the diet has no effect on cognitive function.

• All this suggests that, alongside the bacteria, we already have in our gut microbiome, what we eat could be equally important.

My research

• This relates to complex cognitive tasks we perform daily, including doing maths in our head, or reorganising the day’s tasks in our mind when something unexpectedly changes.
• This research appears promising, but we need more evidence to confirm the potential benefits of both A celatus bacteria and soy foods in helping older people maintain their brain health as they age.
• Each week we will look at a different microbe and bring you the most up-to-date research on them.

• Nathan Nuzum currently works at University College Cork as part of APC Microbiome and receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the INSPIRE COFUND Marie Skłodowska Curie grant agreement No.
• The unpublished/original work referred to in this article was conducted at Deakin University as part of Dr. Nathan Nuzum's PhD.
• Dr. Nuzum's PhD supervisors for this work includes his primary supervisor Dr. Helen Macpherson, and his co-supervisors (in alphabetical order) Drs.

• The U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA) awarded $32 million to The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio to coordinate the study.
• Researchers will focus on the recruitment and analysis of populations most severely affected by long COVID.
• "Cognitive impairment is seen in some adults over 60 who are experiencing long COVID, and this impairment appears to be progressive."
• "Cognitive impairment is seen in some adults over 60 who are experiencing long COVID, and this impairment appears to be progressive.

• Sage Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: SAGE), a biopharmaceutical company leading the way to create a world with better brain health, today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) to SAGE-718 for the treatment of Huntington’s disease (HD).
• Cognitive impairment is one of the most underrecognized aspects of this disease,” said Laura Gault, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer, Sage Therapeutics.
• The approval of an orphan designation request does not alter the standard regulatory requirements and process for obtaining marketing approval.
• SAGE-718 previously received Fast Track Designation from the FDA for HD, and orphan drug designation for HD by the European Medicines Agency.