Volume 1 Issue 6, June 2021

A phase 2 clinical trial of active immunization against a pathological form of the tau protein provides evidence for feasibility of this approach. Although active treatment did not show benefits on clinical outcome measures, analyses of fluid biomarkers and of a subset of patients with predicted pathology provide hints of efficacy.

Arthur et al. leverage different types of big data, either generated in house from cohorts of healthy aging and COVID-19, or downloaded from the ever-increasing public data archives, to disentangle the distinct cellular and proteomic mechanisms of COVID-19 and aging.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by amyloid-β (Aβ)-induced phosphorylation of the axon-stabilizing tau protein, which causes neurodegeneration. Here, Morshed et al. show that deregulated phosphorylation in AD also affects other proteins and cell types in the brain, suggesting that the tau-centric view on Aβ toxicity should be revised.

This Perspective discusses the socioeconomic concept of the longevity dividend, in which healthy and productive aging is achieved through a positive correlation between three dimensions: life expectancy, health and the economy.

This study shows that APOE4, one of the largest genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease, promotes advanced-stage vascular dysfunction and neurodegeneration in old mice via activation of the cyclophilin A pathway in pericytes and independently of the presence of amyloid-β.

The authors present the results of a 24-month phase 2 study of AADvac1, a tau vaccine against Alzheimer’s disease. AADvac1 was safe and induced high levels of antibodies. In the whole study sample, there were no significant changes on clinical outcomes.

Arthur et al. report the biochemical and proteomic (SomaLogic) profiling of plasma and CyTOF immunophenotyping of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 71 individuals with COVID-19 or other inflammatory pulmonary diseases, and 148 healthy donors aged 25–80 years old. The Resource reveals unique determinants of COVID-19 disease relative to healthy aging and other pulmonary disorders.

Morshed et al. analyzed the proteome and phosphoproteome of brain tissue from patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The analysis of patient heterogeneity links glia pathologies and signaling pathways to stages of disease progression.