{"id":26004,"date":"2025-07-26T17:48:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T17:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/26004\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T17:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T17:48:09","slug":"canada-is-hosting-the-worlds-biggest-dementia-conference-for-the-first-time-in-a-decade-whats-changed-since-then","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/26004\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada is hosting the world\u2019s biggest dementia conference for the first time in a decade. What\u2019s changed since then?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Jane Rylett, the scientific director of the CIHR Institute of Aging, announced $44.8-million in new funding for dementia and aging-related research Saturday.Della Rollins\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

This week, researchers from around the globe are descending upon downtown Toronto to attend the Alzheimer\u2019s Association International Conference<\/a>, the world\u2019s biggest and most influential meeting for dementia research. <\/p>\n

The gathering is a chance for the international dementia community to discuss the latest research in the field; it\u2019s also where significant breakthroughs are often unveiled. At a related event on Saturday, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) \u2013 Canada\u2019s health research funding agency \u2013 announced $44.8-million in new funding for dementia and aging-related research initiatives, including the creation of 16 teams that will study everything from Alzheimer\u2019s<\/a> biomarkers to dementia in Indigenous populations. <\/p>\n

To set the stage for this year\u2019s conference, The Globe and Mail checked in with Jane Rylett<\/a>, a professor at Western University and scientific director at the CIHR Institute of Aging, which hosted Saturday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

The last time this global conference was held in Canada was in 2016, nearly a decade ago. How has the dementia research landscape changed since then?<\/p>\n

This is a really important inflection point. There is a new class of drugs, the antibody therapy, that came into the market within the last three or four years; they probably will be approved in Canada in the coming years.<\/p>\n

But while there\u2019s huge hope around it . . . right now, there\u2019s a lot of debate around if they\u2019re really beneficial. For certain people, they don\u2019t work at all; other people have negative side effects by creating inflammation in the brain. And the benefit-to-risk ratio is not great. So I think at this year\u2019s conference, it\u2019s going to be really important to hear about new findings with that. <\/p>\n

Something that\u2019s really gained momentum over the last few years is stepping back from the pharmacological approach to treatment and saying, \u2018What else can we do that will reduce the risk of developing dementia?\u2019 <\/p>\n

Health system urged to brace for major shift in dementia demographics<\/a><\/p>\n

The other thing that\u2019s changed is there\u2019s always been an \u201camyloid hypothesis\u201d of Alzheimer\u2019s disease, based on these toxic peptides that get made in the brain and clearly have a role in brain health and development of dementia. But during these nine years, there\u2019s been a much greater move towards understanding the role of those and recognizing that while they\u2019re still important, they\u2019re not the whole story. Now there\u2019s more openness to looking at other hypotheses about how brain health can be impacted during the life course and can lead to dementia. <\/p>\n

How should people feel about this present moment? Thinking back to 2012, the United States\u2019 health department set an ambitious goal to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer\u2019s disease by 2025. But here we are today and that goal is far from met.<\/p>\n

When people or groups make those kinds of statements, it doesn\u2019t necessarily mesh with the complication of the thing. And then what happens is people see [the missed deadline] and think, well, it didn\u2019t happen. That\u2019s always the danger of doing something like that. <\/p>\n

The brain is a complex thing, it really is. The problem with something like Alzheimer\u2019s disease is it\u2019s so multi-faceted and it\u2019s a spectrum. There\u2019s so many areas of the brain that are impacted and the clinical presentation can look similar for people but what\u2019s happening in their brain, and where the degeneration is initiated, can be quite different. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no one pill that you\u2019re going to have that\u2019s going to be able to change the course or alleviate the symptoms. <\/p>\n

So was it realistic to say in 2012 that this could be cured by 2025? Probably not. But it stimulated a lot of activity. We understand much more about the underlying pathology and the pathogenesis of the disease. And stepping back was an important thing, saying what can we do that is not a pharmaceutical or a pill? What are the life, behavioural and other things that we can do?<\/p>\n

Canada has a chance to change the Alzheimer\u2019s experience – let\u2019s not squander it<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a lot of focus on the funding cuts in the U.S.<\/a> that are under way right now, including to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). How has that affected things? is it looming over the conference this year? <\/p>\n

Yes. A number of Canadian researchers also have been funded by NIH, either in their own right or as subcontracts on larger studies within the U.S., and for the most part, that has been ended, which is very problematic. So we have a number of very good Canadian researchers in all fields that have lost substantial funding, and we don\u2019t have the resources in Canada to replace that. <\/p>\n

One of the big question marks is the impact it\u2019s going to have on the number of Americans that are going to be able to attend the conference. And I don\u2019t know the answer to that yet.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about Canadian researchers. What role are they playing within the broader effort?<\/p>\n

Canadian researchers are leaders internationally in these fields of study. There\u2019s really significant work being done by Canadians in the biomarkers area, so the diagnostic area.<\/p>\n

We have a lot of expertise around how to develop and promote new methods for supporting caregivers and persons with dementia. <\/p>\n

Alzheimer\u2019s trial brings at-risk patients hope for the future, but new doubts in the present<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got outstanding Indigenous cognitive health researchers that are developing new culturally safe and appropriate diagnostic and caregiving methods.<\/p>\n

And we do have some very good work going on around pathogenesis, looking at changes in the brain during aging and how that may lead to loss of cognition. That\u2019s important because you really need to understand where those earliest changes come from. Those are the targets where you need to develop drugs and therapies.<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Dr. Jane Rylett, the scientific director of the CIHR Institute of Aging, announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-26004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}