AD/PD™ in the News

ALZFORUM CONFERENCE COVERAGE SERIES – AD/PD™ 2026

• The Big Picture: Three Inflection Points Mark the Amyloid Cascade
  In a plenary at AD/PD, Bart De Strooper offered a vision of successive cellular struggles in Alzheimer’s pathophysiology, with key moments for therapeutic intervention.
• AI for AD: Developers Throw Their Hats into the Ring
  At AD/PD in Copenhagen, AI scientists competed for two $1 million prizes to develop products for AD research.
• NLRP3 Inhibitor Passes Muster in Early Parkinson’s Trial
  Anti-inflammasome drug appears safe, hits its intended target, and may help people move a little more easily.
• Henrik Zetterberg’s Mantra: Heterogeneity, Heterogeneity, Heterogeneity
  In Copenhagen, Henrik Zetterberg expounds on the next areas of focus in ADRD biomarker research and development.
• A New Crop of α-Synuclein Tracers Enter Human Testing
  At AD/PD, researchers presented early PET imaging studies in people with different synucleinopathies.
• Posdinemab Epitaph: p-Tau217 Tanked but Dementia Marched On
  The tau antibody was unable to slow cognitive decline or accumulation of new tangles, yet it completely ablated p-tau217 in CSF.
• Adding eMTBR-Tau243 to %p-Tau217 Sharpens AD Diagnosis
  Among people who are cognitively impaired, plasma p-tau217 frequently misdiagnoses Alzheimer’s disease. Adding eMTBR-tau243 helps with that.
• An Old Cholinergic Drug Gets a New Chance in Phase 2
  Following promising tolerability data, a compound targeting acetylcholine receptors is once again in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease.
• Does α-Synuclein Immunotherapy Slow Parkinson’s, After All?
  Phase 2 OLE data hints that prasinezumab halved the rate of decline in people who also took symptomatic drugs. Phase 3 has started.
• Lewy Bodies Blunt Amyloid Immunotherapy. Trial to Measure by How Much
  AD/PD 2026 offered the first data on less gantenerumab benefit in the presence of α-synuclein pathology. A new donanemab trial will investigate further.
• Can New Strategies Beget Better Tau Immunotherapies?
  An in-vivo propagation model identifies a more potent anti-tau antibody. A different bi-specific antibody to the C-terminal blocks tau seeding.
• The Hunt Is on for Biomarkers in REM Sleep Behavior Disorder
  In Copenhagen, researchers scrutinize RBD for hints of progression to Parkinson’s disease or dementia with Lewy bodies.
• Aβ and Tau: What’s Their Dance at Plaques, Dystrophic Neurites?
  At AD/PD 2026, flimsy lipid rafts, growing plaques, and subdued interneurons all take some blame for the rise in p-tau in the Alzheimer’s brain.
• Munch, or Meditate? Astrocytes Tell Microglia What to Do
  When astrocytes secrete MFG-E8, nearby microglia devour neuronal synapses. When astrocytes release Itgb8, microglia freeze up.
• Lipids, Lysosomes, and Plaques: How ABCA7 Nudges Up Alzheimer’s Risk
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  Sans ABCA7, cells swell with lipids, lysosomes lose their mojo, and amyloid clearance falters.
• Your Amyloid Load Determines When, and How Fast, Tangles Spread
  PET sets 60-centiloid threshold for tangle take-off. How close they are to plaques drives how fast they spread. Remternetug Phase 3 enrolled accordingly.
• Locking T Cells Out of the Brain Protects Mice Against Tauopathy
  At AD/PD, scientists reported that T cell infiltration into the brain worsens neurodegeneration in tauopathy mice.
• Phase 1: Anti-PD-L1 Antibody Clears First Safety Hurdle
  In people with early AD, the checkpoint-blocking antibody roused peripheral T cells. It provoked immune-related adverse events.
• Acetylated Tau, a Marker for … TDP-43 Pathology?
  In CSF, acetylated tau rises much more in FTLD-TDP than in FTLD-tau or in Alzheimer’s disease.
• Á la Aβ42, P-tau262 Falls in CSF as Alzheimer’s Disease Worsens
  This biomarker might identify tau fragments that get subsumed into neurofibrillary tangles.
• Can Acetylated α-Synuclein Identify Parkinson’s?
  A new assay detects more N-terminal acetylated α-synuclein in blood and CSF of people with PD than in controls or in multiple system atrophy.
• White-Matter Hyperintensities Lie at Crossroads of AD and Vascular Dementia
  At AD/PD, scientists showed that AD triggers more WMHs than does cardiovascular disease. Both diseases likely contribute to the lesions’ cognitive consequences.
• Made-to-Order: Microglial Replacements Can Serve as Couriers or Killers
  Transplanted “CAR-microglia” go after specific targets. Other microglial transplants deliver progranulin. Monocyte-derived replacements wreak havoc.
• CARs Driven By Microglia Bust Plaques
  Chimeric antigen receptors expressed on microglia direct the cells toward specific targets. At AD/PD, “CAR-microglia” were shown to circle and phagocytose amyloid plaques.
• Could Blocking the Complement Cascade Ward Off ARIA?
  In mice, keeping C1q from binding amyloid antibodies slashed microhemorrhages and preserved blood vessels. Plaque clearance continued unabated.
• Homing in on ARIA’s Cellular Villains: Macrophages, Fibroblasts
  Both cell types hack away at the extracellular matrix, both damage blood vessels during amyloid immunotherapy.

AD/PD 2026 highlights: Advancing early detection, diagnostics and therapeutics across neurodegenerative diseases
The Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases Conference (AD/PD) 2026, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, brought together over 5,800 delegates to discuss advances across neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and related disorders.

What Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s researchers can learn from each other
Last week at the scientific conference AD/PD 2026, researchers from across the world came together to share the latest developments in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s research. One of the clearest messages from the conference has been that these two conditions have more in common than once thought.   

World Parkinson’s Day: AD/PD 2026 highlights
Saturday 11 April marks World Parkinson’s Day, commemorating the birthday of Dr James Parkinson, who first described the condition in 1817. To mark the occasion, the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics highlights the recent visit to the Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease (AD/PD) 2026 conference in Copenhagen – moments that reflect the exciting progress being made in Parkinson’s research.

Insights from AD/PD 2026 in Copenhagen
The core takeaway from the week? We cannot continue to think of neurodegeneration as a monolith, but as a complex map of cellular vulnerability. The path forward will entail building a precision biotyping framework that understands this nuance.

NeurologyLive Conference Coverage
The AD/PD Alzheimer Disease and Parkinson Disease Conference features presentations related to the latest breakthroughs in translational research, drug development, early diagnosis, treatment, and clinical trials in Alzheimer, Parkinson, and other related neurological disorders.

Updates on Blarcamesine and Lecanemab for Alzheimer Disease From AD/PD 2026
AD/PD 2026 highlights oral blarcamesine preserving brain volume and IV lecanemab sustaining use while clearing amyloid-beta.

Inside AD/PD 2026: Emerging Breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
Recently, the Medpace neuroscience team attended the AD/PD (Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s Disease) 2026 Conference. The conference was especially compelling this year, with a wide range of breakthrough data and emerging therapeutic strategies presented across neurodegenerative disease research.

AI, Biomarkers and Biological Insights Converge at AD/PD 2026
At the 2026 International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases (AD/PD) in Copenhagen, Denmark, The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) was actively engaged on the ground, contributing to and closely tracking cutting-edge science while participating in critical discussions shaping the field.

Treating ALS: Multiple ALS Drugs Move to Phase 3 Trials
Three experimental ALS drugs are moving to Phase 3 trials, providing hope for a rare disease with few effective treatments.