LAX Leader

The US Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug on Tuesday designed to slow the progression of early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease. The drug, donanemab, has been shown in studies to modestly slow cognitive decline in the initial stages of the disease but also carries safety risks. Experts from the University of Southern California (USC) are available to discuss the potential impact of amyloid-clearing medications.

Helena Chui can address potentially serious side effects of new Alzheimer’s drugs, including brain swelling and bleeding. Paul Aisen, founding director of the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute at USC (ATRI), can provide insights into amyloid-clearing drugs for Alzheimer’s disease. Lon Schneider is an expert on psychiatry, dementia prevention, intervention, and care.

Elizabeth Joe sees Alzheimer’s patients in the clinic and can speak about diagnosing the disease and issues facing families. Julie Zissimopoulos focuses on the economic costs of dementia, its impact on care partners, and racial and ethnic disparities in diagnosis and health care treatment for dementia. María Aranda can discuss the burden of dementia in Black and Latino populations and efforts to diversify clinical trials; she is also the director of outreach, recruitment, and engagement at USC's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

Donna Benton addresses challenges faced by caregivers, including aging parents of people with Down syndrome who are susceptible to developing Alzheimer’s in middle age. Hussein Yassine specializes in how changes in lipid metabolism and nutrition affect cognition and Alzheimer's risk; he directs a center for patients carrying the APOE4 allele, a strong genetic risk factor for dementia.

Additional USC experts include Dana Goldman who discusses health policies impacting patients with dementia and their caregivers; Soeren Mattke who studies economic, political, and societal implications of Alzheimer's treatment; Arie Kapteyn whose recent work involves aging and economic decision-making.

Experts exploring Alzheimer's origins include Andrew Petkus, Caleb Finch, Jiu-Chiuan (JC) Chen examining links between fine-particle pollution and Alzheimer's disease; Andrei Irimia studying genetic, epigenetic, environmental factors on brain aging; Margaret Gatz researching age-related changes in depressive symptoms, personality, cognition; John Ringman focusing on genetic predispositions like Jaliso gene; Michael Rafii linking Down syndrome with Alzheimer's; Zhen Zhao researching genetic causes of vascular cognitive impairment; Sean Curran specializing in biological mechanisms of aging.

In brain imaging research: Art Toga is an expert in brain mapping at Keck School of Medicine at USC; Neda Jahanshad researches genetic influences using high-resolution structural diffusion imaging related to infectious diseases' effects on the brain; Paul Thompson leads a consortium analyzing global neuroimaging data across various brain diseases.

For more information or interviews with these experts contact Leigh Hopper at lhopper@usc.edu or uscnews@usc.edu.