Remarkable progress has been made in understanding Alzheimer’s disease over the past few years. 

Alzheimer’s remains a devastating illness, touching millions of families around the world. In the United States alone, more than 7 million people are currently living with the disease. That means about 1 out of every 9 people over the age of 65 have it. As life expectancies continue to go up, those numbers will only increase.

But here’s the good news: We are making massive progress in the fight against Alzheimer’s and other related dementias.

There are a number of reasons for optimism—it’s an exciting time in a challenging space. One example: At Indiana University’s School of Medicine in Indianapolis—where they have an incredible center that is doing lots of leading-edge neuroscience—innovative biomarker labs are deploying automated diagnostic technologies that will soon be used worldwide.

One of the most promising breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s research and development is the emergence of blood-based diagnostic tests. Although a number of companies have different approaches in the pipeline, each approach works in roughly the same way, by detecting the ratio of amyloid plaques in the brain. Here in the US, this work reached a huge milestone last month when the FDA approved the first blood-based test for patients 55 years and older.

Until recently, the only way to confirm a suspected Alzheimer’s diagnosis was to have either a PET scan or spinal tap. Neither were the kind of test a doctor would order unless a patient showed clear signs of decline. But catching Alzheimer’s early is key. We now know that the disease begins 15 to 20 years before any signs are apparent. A simple, accurate, and easy-to-run blood test might one day make routine screening possible, identifying patients long before they experience cognitive decline. 

A common question that arises alongside the promise of these new diagnostics is, “What is the point of getting diagnosed if I can’t do anything about it?”

It’s a fair question—but soon it will be irrelevant because the FDA has approved two drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s. Both have proven to modestly slow down the progression of the disease, and what is really exciting is their potential when paired with an early diagnosis. Early evidence shows that these treatments could be drastically more impactful when given early in the disease’s progression.

Phase III clinical trials are underway now to prove just how transformative these drugs are for people with presymptomatic Alzheimer’s, and we could see results by the end of this year (2026). Until then, the drugs will continue to help patients who are already showing cognitive decline.

Further progress will depend on researchers continuing to improve current treatments and develop new drugs. This will require running lots of clinical trials. Without a simple diagnostic test, it’s often difficult to find enough eligible patients. In some cases, it takes longer to enroll participants than to conduct the study—as long as three years! Hopefully, the new blood tests will get the recruitment time down to less than a year.

All of this progress hinges, of course, on continued funding for Alzheimer’s research. Some of the biggest breakthroughs to date were supported by federal grants, for example, the discovery of the connection between amyloid proteins and the disease. This isn’t unusual: Medical R&D (research and development) often relies on government funding to support projects that explore foundational science or tests and treatments that aren’t commercially viable yet.

We are on the verge of turning the tide against dementia—which makes this an especially bad time to pull back on research. Recent cuts to the National Institutes of Health and other government institutions threaten to stop progress in its tracks, and no individual or private organization can fill the gap.

This is the moment to spend more money on research, not less. Right now, all over the world, researchers are collecting data about Alzheimer’s disease. New tools are making it easier for them to share information and work together. As a result, the quest to stop Alzheimer’s has never had more momentum.

There is still a huge amount of work to be done—like deepening our understanding of the disease’s pathology and developing even better diagnostics. But it’s inspiring how much we’ve learned about Alzheimer’s over the last couple of years.

It is this significant progress toward understanding Alzheimer’s a short amount of time that gives us reason for hope—in spite of the many challenges facing the world. We’re closer than ever before to a world where no one has to watch someone they love suffer from this awful disease.