A Norwegian Swedish clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) demonstrates that rituximab, a low-cost B-cell depleting therapy, is as effective as ocrelizumab in newly diagnosed relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS).

A $3 million gift from the Norman and Mary Pattiz Foundation will support promising research for Alzheimer’s disease at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, including novel drug discovery and other efforts aimed at early detection and prevention. The newly created Norman and Mary Pattiz Alzheimer’s Research Fund will provide pilot funding and accelerate priority projects of the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC). The gift will help fund an interdisciplinary team at the USC Center for Personalized Brain Health (CPBH) which is targeting a family of enzymes that can increase the risk of inflammation in the brains of people with the APOE4 gene variation—the most significant genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s—as a way to prevent the disease. In addition to drug targeting which includes imaging modality development, and the use of artificial intelligence to pinpoint small molecules involved in brain inflammation, the fund will also support efforts to modernize the center’s brain pathology library and look at brain inflammation markers in patients with Alzheimer's. Also made possible by the funding will be a plan to create a registry for early detection of individuals at high risk for neuro-inflammation based on the APOE4 genetic variant and cardiovascular risk factors. 

The research, led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, reveals that the blood–brain barrier is defined not only by the proteins it expresses, but by how it uses them, through a dynamic property known as endocytic turnover rate (ETOR).

This discovery shows that brain endothelial cells have a unique molecular behaviour that distinguishes them from other blood vessels and can be disrupted during inflammation.

The results provide new insight into how the barrier functions and fails in disease which may help identify novel therapeutic strategies to restore neurovascular health.