Adults with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and their caregivers represent a segment of the population with low levels of moderate-intensity physical activity (MPA) and limited options for increasing MPA. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a group video conference approach for increasing MPA in adults with AD and their caregivers. Adults with AD and their caregivers attended 30-min group exercise sessions three times per week for 12 weeks. Exercise sessions and support sessions were delivered in their homes on a tablet computer over video conferencing software. Nine adults with AD/caregiver dyads enrolled, and seven completed the 12-week intervention. Adults with AD attended 77.3% of the group exercise sessions, and caregivers attended 79.2% of group exercise sessions. Weekly MPA increased in both adults with AD (49%) and caregivers (30%). Exercise delivered by group video conferencing is a feasible and potentially effective approach for increasing MPA in adults with AD and their caregivers.

Antigen-specific immunotherapy (ASIT) has been used to hyposensitize patients to allergens and offers an enticing approach for attenuating autoimmune diseases. Applying ASIT to mucosal surfaces such as the lungs may engage unique immune response pathways to improve efficacy. Pulmonary delivery of soluble antigen arrays (SAgAs) was explored in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a multiple sclerosis model. SAgAs were designed to impede immune response to autoantigen epitopes and are composed of a hyaluronan backbone with peptides PLP139–151 and LABL, a disease-causing proteolipid peptide epitope and an ICAM-1 ligand, respectively. Pulmonary instillation of SAgAs decreased disease score, improved weight gain, and decreased incidence of disease in EAE mice compared to pulmonary delivery of HA polymer, LABL, or PLP. Interestingly, treating with PLP alone also showed some improvement. Splenocytes from SAgA-treated animals showed increased IFN-γ levels, and IL-6 and IL-17 were elevated in SAgA-treated animals compared to PLP treatments. IL-10, IL-2, and TNF-α levels showed no significant difference, yet trends across all cytokines suggested SAgAs induced a very different immune response compared to treatment with PLP alone. This work suggests that co-delivery of peptide components is essential when treating EAE via pulmonary instillation, and the immune response may have shifted towards immune tolerance. a

MGMT inhibition is associated with decrease in survivin expression and increase in sensitivity to GEM in pancreatic cancer.

Subjects in the earliest stage of PSEN1-related AD showed deficits on orientation to date and in divided attention when spelling backwards. It is unclear if educational level should be considered an associated feature or a con-founding variable in this population although it should be taken into account when considering performance on the MMSE task of divided attention. The relative lack of deficits on delayed recall of three words probably represents the insensitivity of this measure in early AD. This study supports the utility of autosomal dominant AD as a model of the more common sporadic form of the disorder.