The Alzheimer’s Project: Momentum In Science

MOMENTUM IN SCIENCE, PART OF THE

PIONEERING MULTI-PLATFORM SERIES THE ALZHEIMER’S PROJECT,

REVEALS THE LATEST RESEARCH ADVANCES WHEN IT

DEBUTS IN TWO PARTS MAY 11 AND 12 ON HBO

“This is a time when scientific opportunities are enormously exciting and unprecedented in the area of Alzheimer’s disease research.”

— Richard J. Hodes, MD, Director of the National Institute on Aging, NIH

In 1906, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German pathologist, discovered lesions in the brain of a woman who died of dementia at age 56. For 80 years, there was little progress in understanding the disease that now bears his name. More recently, however, there has been an exponential increase in the understanding of what causes Alzheimer’s and how it can be treated and possibly even prevented.

THE ALZHEIMER’S PROJECT: MOMENTUM IN SCIENCE is a two-part, state-of-the-science odyssey that takes viewers inside the laboratories and clinics of 25 leading scientists and physicians, revealing some of the most cutting-edge research advances. Part 1 debuts MONDAY, MAY 11 (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET/PT), followed by Part 2 on TUESDAY, MAY 12 (8:00-9:00 p.m.).

Other HBO playdates for Part 1: May 12 (4:30 p.m.), 15 (10:00 a.m., 8:00 p.m.), 16 (5:00 p.m.) and 27 (midnight)

HBO2 playdates for Part 1: May 13 (10:00 p.m.) and 18 (noon, midnight)

Other HBO playdates for Part 2: May 15 (11:00 a.m., 9:00 p.m.), 17 (4:30 p.m.) and 28 (midnight)

HBO2 playdates for Part 2: May 13 (11:00 p.m.) and 19 (noon, 11:30 p.m.)

“It is critically important that the public understand where we stand with Alzheimer’s research, both the progress being made and the challenge of the task ahead as the population ages and the risk of Alzheimer’s increases,” notes Dr. Richard Hodes, Director of the National Institute on Aging, NIH. Much of the research highlighted in the film is supported by the public through the National Institute on Aging and other components of the Federal Government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“My great hope is that we will see a steady decline in the severity of Alzheimer’s, that we will push back its onset, and that we will shorten the time people suffer this terrible decline of their most human qualities,” comments Dennis Selkoe, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In fact, says Selkoe, there are already a number of study findings “that suggest we’re on the right track.”

While there is no cure for the disease, THE ALZHEIMER’S PROJECT shows that there is now genuine reason to be optimistic about the future. Created by the award-winning team behind HBO’s acclaimed “Addiction” project, MOMENTUM IN SCIENCE is produced by John Hoffman and Susan Froemke.

Two years in the making, MOMENTUM IN SCIENCE details the current explosion of knowledge within the scientific and medical communities, from imaging the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s, to understanding the roles that genetics and lifestyle might play, to the tremendous progress being made in the effort to develop drugs to treat or even prevent the disease. A complex disease that may have no single cause, Alzheimer’s is thought to develop from the interaction of multiple factors over many years. Scientists are zeroing in on what might cause Alzheimer’s or protect against it, exploring intriguing links to heart disease and diabetes, as well as the possible benefits of exercise, where studies in animals and short-term clinical trials have demonstrated positive effects on brain health.

“We’re light years ahead of where we were in 1994, when former president Reagan came to the Mayo Clinic,” explains Ronald Petersen, MD, PhD, Mayo Clinic. “In the last five to ten years, we’ve made enormous strides in understanding the biology of Alzheimer’s disease. We know which abnormalities in the brain are likely causing the symptoms of memory loss, confusion, irritability and aggression, language breakdown and general withdrawal.”

Groundbreaking advances in brain imaging are allowing scientists to peer into the living brain to see brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease at their earliest stages. Researchers can now see the presence of beta-amyloid plaques and tau tangles, two hallmarks of the disease, where previously the only way to study the brain changes of Alzheimer’s was at autopsy. These new techniques will allow scientists to observe experimental treatments on the brain.

In 2004, doctors at the University of Pittsburgh invented a remarkable imaging dye that reveals, for the first time, beta-amyloid plaques in the living brain. Through studying volunteers who have a genetic mutation that causes early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, such as the five out of six DeMoe siblings featured in MOMENTUM IN SCIENCE, Part 2, researchers are now able to better understand how Alzheimer’s progresses for people with both early- and late-onset forms of the disease.

Exercise and healthy blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels all may contribute to increasing one’s chances for a long and healthy cognitive life, new research suggests. In MOMENTUM IN SCIENCE, Part 2, Carl Cotman, PhD, UC Irvine, explains his research findings in mice, commenting, “Certainly, in animal models, there is no question that exercise can induce growth factors in the brain. It can help build new neurons into the circuits, it can build synapses, improve learning, and it can basically improve vascular function.”

Revolutionary pharmaceutical approaches to treating and preventing Alzheimer’s are reaching final stages of drug testing. Clinical trials of 91 drugs were underway as of 2008, including several beta-amyloid vaccines that have broken new ground in the field of Alzheimer’s research. Paul Aisen, MD, Director of the NIA-supported Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study, states, “There is a sense of excitement in the field of drug development for Alzheimer’s disease that I think is beyond anything else in healthcare now.”

Scientists on the front lines of research featured in Part 1 of MOMENTUM IN SCIENCE include: Dennis Selkoe, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, who was one of the first to identify beta-amyloid as a culprit in Alzheimer’s; Suzanne Craft, PhD, VA Puget Sound and University of Washington School of Medicine, who is teasing out the connections between diabetes, insulin resistance and Alzheimer’s; Charles DeCarli, MD, UC Davis Medical School, a neuroimaging expert who believes that high blood pressure and atherosclerosis could contribute to the onset of Alzheimer’s; and Thomas Beach, MD, PhD, Banner Sun Health Research Institute, who studies the role of cholesterol in the Alzheimer’s disease process and has demonstrated that the brain arteries of people with Alzheimer’s contain much more cholesterol build-up than those of cognitively normal individuals.

Pioneering researchers spotlighted in Part 2 of MOMENTUM IN SCIENCE include: psychiatrist William Klunk, MD, PhD, and physicist Chester Mathis, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who worked together to invent the new imaging technology that allows researchers to see amyloid plaques inside the living brain; Scott Small, MD, Columbia University Medical Center, who is using MRI technology to pinpoint the first signs of cell dysfunction deep within the brain and distinguish the memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s from that caused by normal aging; Carl Cotman, PhD, UC Irvine, an expert on the aging brain who is seeking to understand how exercise and diet might affect the trajectory of cognitive decline; and Dale Schenk, PhD, of Elan Pharmaceuticals, who originated the out-of-the-box idea of treating Alzheimer’s with a vaccine and has brought the exciting approach of immunization to the final stage of clinical drug trials.

Scientists from the National Institute on Aging’s Division of Neuroscience, the Alzheimer’s Association, and additional investigators from a number of research centers also provided technical advice and insights that brought the highest levels of scientific expertise to the films.

THE ALZHEIMER’S PROJECT seeks to bring a wider understanding of the disease to the American public through a four-part documentary series, 15 short supplemental films, a robust website and a nationwide community-based information and outreach campaign. A book published by Public Affairs Books was developed by the producers as a companion to the project. HBO will use all of its platforms, including the HBO main service, multiplex channels, HBO On Demand, HBO Podcasts, hbo.com, HBO Channel on YouTube and DVD sales, to support the project. In addition, all films will stream free of charge on hbo.com and will be offered for free on multiple platforms by participating television service providers.

The three other documentaries in THE ALZHEIMER’S PROJECT are: “The Memory Loss Tapes,” providing an up-close and personal look at seven individuals and their families living with Alzheimer’s, each in an advancing state of dementia across the full spectrum of the progression of the disease; “ ‘Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?’ with Maria Shriver,” capturing what it means to be a child or grandchild of a person who has Alzheimer’s; and “Caregivers,” highlighting the sacrifices and successes of people who experience their loved ones’ descent into dementia.

THE ALZHEIMER’S PROJECT is presented by HBO Documentary Films and the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health in association with the Alzheimer’s Association®, Fidelity® Charitable Gift Fund and Geoffrey Beene Gives Back® Alzheimer’s Initiative. The series producer is John Hoffman; the executive producers are Sheila Nevins and Maria Shriver.

For more information on THE ALZHEIMER’S PROJECT and Alzheimer’s disease, go to HBO.com/alzheimers.