Here’s to TW3!

By Dale Bredesen, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer for Apollo Health

When I was a little boy, a TV show named That Was the Week That Was (TW3) aired, first on the BBC in the UK, and then an American version on US television. It focused on events of the previous week, and although it did not last long, it was a harbinger of Laugh-In and other shows that chronicled and often satirized current events.

The progress in 2025 has been so exciting that 2025 is a candidate for That Was the Year That Was (even though TWTYTW is not nearly as cool a name as TW3). Here is a list of some of the auspicious advances that truly make 2025 a year to remember:

•We completed the Evanthea Trial, a randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT) at six sites, on October 31, and improvement in cognition has turned out to be greater than seen in any other trial. Although it will take a few years to report all of the many data collected — from cognitive scores to symptom trackers to epigenetics to biochemical parameters to genomics to MRI volumetrics to Alzheimer biomarkers to depression scores to wearable data, and on and on, the take-home lesson is clear: there is now an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease at the presymptomatic stage, SCI stage, MCI stage, and early dementia stage, for those who do not wait until late — so please encourage everyone with any cognitive symptoms or family history of dementia not to wait, since so much can now be done to help.

•Sensitive, accurate blood-based biomarkers such as p-tau 217, GFAP, and NfL became available, and they are already providing new guidance into achieving best outcomes and helping many of us to “see it coming” so that we can be much more effective in the prevention of cognitive decline, as well as following and optimizing progress. These new biomarkers are helping us to make dementia a rare condition, just as it should be.  

•Assisted living facilities have, until now, been sites for continued cognitive decline — often accelerated cognitive decline, depression, and zombifying drugs. Thankfully, that is just beginning to change, and this week, CALA — the California Assisted Living Association — held its annual meeting, and invited Dennis Bacopulos from The Vineyards and me to talk about how The Vineyards and Apollo Health are working together to create a paradigm shift in assisted living. Marama and Dr. Heather Sandison have already shown that residents in assisted living can actually improve their cognition, and sustain the improvement, so I am enthusiastic to see The Vineyards, many CALA members, and assisted living facilities throughout the country initiate a new era — imagine going to see a loved one in assisted living, who is not confused or combative or depressed, but instead is aware, engaged, and happy to see family. That is what is coming.

•PHQ-9 is a commonly used measure of depression, and PHQ-9 data from those on ReCODE have now shown that not only is cognition improved, but depression is reduced, as well. You can see this important work from Dr. Ram Rao and his colleagues here.

•Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is an MRI technique that is very sensitive to Alzheimer-related pathophysiology, and thus is very valuable for diagnosis and follow-up. This new technique was just used to evaluate a patient with ApoE 4/4 who went on the ReCODE protocol, followed by Drs. Merrill and Sandison, and after the initial ASL (read by Dr. Cyrus Raji, Professor of Radiology at the Washington University School of Medicine) showed classic Alzheimer’s changes, a follow-up ASL after a year of treatment was completely normal — a milestone and further proof of efficacy for this approach to treatment.

•Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a presentation of Alzheimer’s disease in which visual analysis is compromised, so that people have difficulty driving and seeing some objects. It has not been treated successfully until now, and Health Coach and Caregiver Kerry Rutland and her colleagues, including Dr. Neil Nathan, reported the first successful treatment this year, which you can read about here.

•Corticobasal syndrome is a rare presentation of Alzheimer’s in which both cognitive symptoms and motor symptoms, somewhat like Parkinson’s occur, and this is another presentation that has not been treated successfully until 2025 — you can read about this here.

•For anyone interested in “nerding out” for a few hours, you can read about a new theory that explains why neurodegenerative diseases occur, from Alzheimer’s to Lewy body disease to Lou Gehrig’s disease to macular degeneration, and what the implications are for the development of successful treatment, which you can read here.

•2025 has been another year of working with the fantastic team at Apollo — thank you! Bringing so much support to the community, guides for optimal outcomes, education, data analysis for continued progress, forums for issues arising, town halls for questions from participants and practitioners, curation of best new tests and therapeutics, onboarding and guidance, and so many other forms of support, all focused on reducing the global burden of dementia and all offering hope where there has been none before.

I am grateful to everyone who has made 2025 a year of unparalleled progress.