Raleigh, N.C.-based company K4Connect develops technology to expand seniors' lives, reports WTVD . K4Connect's user-friendly application is employed at more than 800 senior living communities throughout the United States. The app allows users to access dinner menus, lunch menus, residents, services, events, and other resources on their phone. Senior living community residents can also use it and their voice to operate Amazon Alexa and connect to a Garmin smartwatch that monitors things like blood pressure, heart rate, and exercise. Furthermore, community staff can use the app to monitor residents round-the-clock. "With the motion sensors in each apartment, we're able to see if there has been motion from our residents," said The Reserve at Mills Farm Marketing Director Kim Dahl. K4Connect CEO Scott Moody said his company aims to make seniors' lives simpler, healthier, and more pleasant, "and when you do those things, when they provide real value, first order value to that older adult, then they use it."

KIMT-TV reports that the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) says nursing and assisted living community staff are hesitant to be vaccinated against COVID-19 despite the fact they work with one of the most vulnerable populations. For example, nearly 100 percent of residents at River Bend Assisted Living & Memory Care in Rochester have been vaccinated versus about 68 percent of staff, which is still higher than the state average of 48 percent. River Bend Marketing Director Kim Holst said it is critical to offer employees the option to be inoculated given the fact they are in close contact with this vulnerable demographic every day. "We definitely need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to keep them safe so that we can stay open and so our families can come and visit their loved ones here too," she declared. MDH data shows long-term care residents are immunized at a much higher rate of 80 percent to 90 percent.

A study published in Nature suggests the brain's meningeal lymphatics system plays an important role in neurodegenerative disease, and that fixing this faulty drainage system could improve certain Alzheimer's medications, reports Futurity . "Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases . . . are characterized by protein aggregation in the brain," said Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (WUSM) Professor Jonathan Kipnis. "If you break up these aggregates but you have no way to get rid of the debris because your sink is clogged, you didn't accomplish much. You have to unclog the sink to really solve the problem." The researchers disabled the meningeal lymphatics of mice genetically prone to forming amyloid plaques, comparing the patterns of genes expressed by microglia to those in mice whose lymphatics were left intact. Microglia in the lymphatic dysfunction group shifted to a state more likely to promote neurodegeneration, and this same pattern was observed in humans. "Maybe an understanding of this system is a part of what the field of Alzheimer's drug development has been missing, and with increased attention to it we will better translate some of these promising drug candidates into therapies that provide meaningful benefits to people living with this devastating disease," said WUSM Professor David Holtzman.

A study in Neurology suggests a Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk for developing Alzheimer's disease by interfering with the accrual of amyloid and tau proteins, reports CNN . Most meals adhering to the Mediterranean diet are heavy on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, and seeds, with a few nuts and a significant portion of extra-virgin olive oil. Fats apart from olive oil are consumed rarely, and refined sugar or flour is cut out entirely. Participants who did not follow the diet closely had more indications of amyloid and tau buildup in their spinal fluid than those who did, while for each point a person lost on failing to follow the diet, brain scans showed one additional year of brain aging in areas associated with Alzheimer's. "These results add to the body of evidence that show what you eat may influence your memory skills later on," stated Tommaso Ballarini at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases.

A newly released University of Michigan (U-M) poll of some 2,000 older adults found 65 percent of adults ages 50 to 80 rated their mental health as excellent or very good, 27 percent as good, and 8 percent as fair or poor, reports AARP . Over 80 percent said their mental health is as good as, or better than, it was two decades ago. Furthermore, 29 percent of respondents ages 50 to 80 said they would be hesitant to seek help from a mental health professional in the future. In addition, fewer people reported feelings of isolation than those who did so in a survey from spring 2020. "I really think resiliency, life experience, the ability to put things in perspective can really help . . . people shoulder some of these stressors a little bit better," said Michigan Medicine geriatric psychiatrist Lauren Gerlach. Meanwhile, a November 2020 AARP national phone survey of roughly 1,500 adults found that the portion of respondents reporting high stress decreased with increasing age.

Pfizer's chief scientific officer Mikael Dolsten told investors this week that high-risk groups like seniors and people with underlying medical conditions will likely be prioritized to receive booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, reports CNBC . He said it makes sense to put the most vulnerable groups at the front of the line. The two-dose vaccine has demonstrated about 95 percent effectiveness against the virus two weeks after the second dose, although those who helped develop the shot now say they are starting to notice that strong protection fades over time. Executives at Pfizer and BioNTech previously said people will likely need booster shots of the vaccine within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated, as well additional shots annually.

Healthcare IT News reports that interoperability platform provider InterSystems announced a partnership with Cognetivity Neurosciences to facilitate broader access to early dementia detection tools. The alliance grants Cognetivity access to InterSystems' IRIS for Health platform, which will enable interoperability between Cognetivity's Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA) dementia-detection software and electronic health records (EHRs). "The pandemic has demonstrated the need for scalable innovation that cuts across conventional boundaries to provide remote early detection tools that reduce cost and risk while improving outcomes for individual patients," said InterSystems' Chris Norton. Cognetivity's ICA employs artificial intelligence and machine learning to help detect early signs of dementia; the test's goal is to diagnose dementia up to 15 years earlier than conventional techniques, and the partnership will allow IRIS for Health to effect the integration of ICA with healthcare data systems across international hospitals. Cognetivity CEO Sina Habibi explained that "InterSystems has successfully integrated with around 200 different information systems, including those of the biggest EHR providers in the U.K. and U.S., including Cerner, Epic, and Allscripts. With our platforms working together seamlessly, the scope of international applications that are now accessible is substantial."

A study in Nature Medicine found an experimental drug intended for Alzheimer's patients apparently improves both language and learning in adults with Fragile X syndrome, reports National Public Radio . The medication, BPN14770, boosted cognitive scores by about 10 percent in 30 adult males after 12 weeks. Tetra Therapeutics CEO Mark Gurney initiated the study after learning that both Fragile X syndrome and Alzheimer's affect a substance called cyclic AMP that helps transmit messages within cells. Tetra had been developing BPN14770 as an Alzheimer's medication that manipulated cyclic AMP, "so we thought there was a strong possibility that this drug might be effective in Fragile X," Gurney said. The FRAXA foundation arranged to have the drug tested in animals, and later in people. FRAXA co-founder Michael Tranfaglia said some previous studies looked at drugs that had dramatic effects in mice that did not translate to people, but with BNP14770, "we saw an almost perfect translation of these findings we saw in the mice into the human condition." Tetra is working with its parent company, Japanese drugmaker Shionogi, to initiate a much bigger study of the new drug this summer.

A study published in Diagnostics detailed a new biomarker-based algorithm for the diagnostics of dementia, which will help to reliably distinguish between patients with different types of dementia and select patients for clinical drug trials, reports News-Medical . The researchers recommend using blood neurofilament light chain levels in the screening of dementia with their algorithm. The program also facilitates diagnosis of the most common type of dementia, Alzheimer's, based on blood sample analysis. Cerebrospinal fluid-based analyses might only be required for the diagnostics of rarer forms of dementia later on. "New biomarkers will enable ground-breaking next-generation diagnostics," predicts University of Eastern Finland Professor Eino Solje. "Moreover, the currently time-taking diagnostic procedures will accelerate. This will diminish the humane burden of patients and their next-of-kin, when we can provide a precise diagnosis instead of prolonged uncertainty for the families."

KMVT-11 reports that Moss Green House has partnered with Clif Bar and the United Way to donate more than 1,000 flowers to seniors living in nursing and assisted living communities throughout Southern Idaho's Magic Valley region. "Flowers bring people joy, they walk into our green houses and you can just tell, they light up when they walk in here," said Moss Green House's Jennifer Moss. "So if we can bring that to somebody's room when they haven't had a visitor in over a year we are so excited to be able to execute that." The United Way's Sonya Haines added, "This is going to mean a lot to all those who have been stuck in their assisted livings or their apartments and haven't been able to get out."