An experimental treatment appears to delay Alzheimer’s symptoms in some people genetically destined to get the disease in their 40s or 50s, according to new findings from ongoing research now caught up in Trump administration funding delays.

The early results — a scientific first — were published Wednesday even as study participants worried that politics could cut their access to a possible lifeline.

“It’s still a study but it has given me an extension to my life that I never banked on having,” said Jake Heinrichs of New York City.

Now 50, Heinrichs has been treated in that study for more than a decade and remains symptom-free despite inheriting an Alzheimer’s-causing gene that killed his father and brother around the same age.

If blocked funding stops Heinrichs’ doses, “how much time do we have?” asked his wife, Rachel Chavkin. “This trial is life.”

Two drugs sold in the U.S. can modestly slow worsening of early-stage Alzheimer’s by clearing the brain of one of its hallmarks, a sticky gunk called amyloid. But until now, there haven’t been hints that removing amyloid far earlier – many years before the first symptoms appear – just might postpone the disease.

The research led by Washington University in St. Louis involves families that pass down rare gene mutations almost guaranteeing they’ll develop symptoms at the same age their affected relatives did – information that helps scientists tell if treatments are having any effect.

The new findings center on a subset of 22 participants who received amyloid-removing drugs the longest, on average eight years. Long-term amyloid removal cut in half their risk of symptom onset, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Lancet Neurology.

Despite the study’s small size, “it’s incredibly important,” said Northwestern University neuroscientist David Gate, who wasn’t involved with the research.

Now participants have been switched from an earlier experimental drug to Leqembi, an IV treatment approved in the U.S., to try to answer the obvious next question.

“What we want to determine over the next five years is how strong is the protection,” said Washington University’s Dr. Randall Bateman, who directs the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network of studies involving families with these rare genes. “Will they ever get the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease if we keep treating them?”

Here’s the worry: Bateman raised money to start that confirmatory study while seeking National Institutes of Health funding for the full project but his grant has been delayed as required reviews were canceled. It’s one example of how millions of dollars in research have been stalled as NIH grapples with funding restrictions and mass firings.

At the same time researchers wonder if NIH will shift focus away from amyloid research after comments by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, nominated as the agency’s new director.

“One of the reasons I think that we have not made progress in Alzheimer’s, as much as we ought to have, is because the NIH has not supported a sufficiently wide range of hypotheses,” Bhattacharya told senators, responding to one who brought up an example of earlier science misconduct unrelated to current research.

Scientists don’t know exactly what causes Alzheimer’s, a mind-destroying disease that affects nearly 7 million Americans, mostly late in life. What’s clear is that silent changes occur in the brain at least two decades before the first symptoms — and that sticky amyloid is a major contributor. At some point amyloid buildup appears to trigger a protein named tau to begin killing neurons, which drives cognitive decline.

Tau-fighting drugs now are being tested. Researchers also are studying other factors including inflammation, the brain’s immune cells and certain viruses.

NIH’s focus expanded as researchers found more potential culprits. In 2013, NIH’s National Institute on Aging funded 14 trials of possible Alzheimer’s drugs, over a third targeting amyloid. By last fall, there were 68 drug trials and about 18% targeted amyloid.

Northwestern’s Gate counts himself among scientists who “think amyloid isn’t everything,” but said nothing has invalidated the amyloid hypothesis. He recently used brain tissue preserved from an old amyloid study to learn how immune cells called microglia can clear those plaques and then switch to helping the brain heal, possible clues for improving today’s modest therapies.

For now, amyloid clearly is implicated somehow and families with Alzheimer’s-causing genes are helping answer a critical question for anyone at risk: Can blocking amyloid buildup really stave off symptoms? Without NIH funding, Bateman said, that opportunity will be lost.

“It’s absolutely insane,” said longtime study participant June Ward, who lives near Asheville, North Carolina, and plans to ask friends to complain to lawmakers.

Ward turns 64 in June and is healthy, two years older than when her mother’s symptoms appeared. “It is exciting to think about the possibility that Alzheimer’s disease might not be what gets me,” she said.

In New York, Heinrichs said he has hope that his 3-year-old son won’t “experience the stress and sorrow that I lived through as a young man to watch my father fade away.”

“We need the NIH to be not politicized,” added Chavkin, his wife. “It’s just about keeping people alive or helping them live better. And in this case, it’s helping my husband survive.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

ROME — Pope Francis’ upcoming commitments appeared increasingly in question Monday as he spent a fourth day in the hospital with a respiratory tract infection that has already sidelined him longer than a 2023 hospitalization for pneumonia.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Francis, 88, ate breakfast and read the newspapers Monday morning and was continuing his unspecified drug therapies. A more detailed medical update was expected later in the day.

Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital in a “fair” condition on Friday after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened. Doctors confirmed a respiratory tract infection and prescribed “absolute rest” alongside unspecified drug therapies. Subsequent updates said his slight fever had gone away and that he was in “stable” condition.

The Argentine pope, who had part of one lung removed after a pulmonary infection as a young man, is a known workaholic who keeps up a grueling pace despite his increasingly precarious health.

There has been no word on how long his hospital stay might last.

When he had a bad case of pneumonia in 2023, he left after three days and only acknowledged after the fact that he had been admitted urgently after feeling faint and having a sharp pain in his chest. This time around, Francis insisted on finishing his morning audiences Friday before leaving the Vatican, even though he was having trouble speaking at length because he was short of breath.

The Holy See has only confirmed cancelled appointments through Monday. Francis was supposed to have gone to Rome’s Cinecitta film studios to meet with artists as part of the Catholic Church’s Holy Year celebrations.

While his private audiences are rarely announced with much advance notice, the pope’s next scheduled appointment is his weekly general audience Wednesday. Beyond that, he is scheduled to preside on Sunday at the ordination of deacons as part of a Holy Year weekend dedicated to deacons. Francis’ participation in both appears in doubt, but they remain on the official Vatican schedule.

When he missed the Jubilee Mass dedicated to artists this past Sunday, a cardinal stood in for him.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

WASHINGTON — Connecticut U.S. Rep. John Larson, who inexplicably stopped speaking during a speech Monday on the House of Representatives floor, said Tuesday night he had suffered a complex partial seizure.

The 76-year-old Democrat, who is serving his 13th term, said the House attending physician referred him for further evaluation following the incident. The diagnosis was determined after a round of tests, according to a news release from Larson’s office.

People who experience such seizures, which can last 30 seconds to two minutes, can appear to be daydreaming or staring blankly. They may also make some movements, such as chewing, according to Cedars-Sinai medical center. During his speech, Larson is speaking normally before he suddenly stops, drops his arm and stares ahead, appearing to make chewing movements.

Larson, whose office on Monday said the incident was likely “an adverse reaction to a new medication,” attributed the complex partial seizure to a heart valve replacement.

“Fifteen years ago, I had a heart valve replacement due to a variation in the shape of my aortic valve that I was born with,” he said in a statement. “Sometimes, people with this condition can later develop symptoms such as the momentary change in speech or movement that was apparent yesterday. ”

Larson said he has been prescribed medication that doctors told him will “greatly reduce the chance of this happening again.” Larson, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he plans to resume his congressional duties on Wednesday.

“I am looking forward to getting back to work for the people of Connecticut’s First District,” Larson said.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — The U.S. Justice Department is accusing Walgreens of filling millions of prescriptions in the last decade and more without a legitimate purpose, including for dangerous amounts of opioids, according to a lawsuit filed this week.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the complaint says the drugstore chain’s pharmacists filled controlled substance prescriptions with clear red flags that indicated they were highly likely to be unlawful. Walgreens also systematically pressured pharmacists to fill prescriptions without taking the time to confirm their validity, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit says Walgreens filled “unlawful” prescriptions in violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act and sought reimbursement from federal health care programs for them in violation of the False Claims Act.

Walgreens, one of the country’s largest pharmacy chains, with over 8,000 locations, said in a statement that it stands behind its pharmacists. It said they say fill legitimate prescriptions for Food and Drug Administration-approved medications written by Drug Enforcement Administration-licensed prescribers in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.

Walgreens is also accused of ignoring evidence, including from its own pharmacists and internal data, that stores were dispensing unlawful prescriptions, according to the complaint. In addition, it allegedly deprived pharmacists of crucial information including by preventing them from warning each another about particular prescribers.

“This lawsuit seeks to hold Walgreens accountable for the many years that it failed to meet its obligations when dispensing dangerous opioids and other drugs,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement. “These practices allowed millions of opioid pills and other controlled substances to flow illegally out of Walgreens stores.”

The company said it is asking the court to clarify the responsibilities of pharmacies and pharmacists and to protect against the government’s attempt to enforce arbitrary “rules” that do not appear in any law or regulation and never went through any official rulemaking process.

“We will not stand by and allow the government to put our pharmacists in a no-win situation, trying to comply with “rules” that simply do not exist,” Walgreens said in the statement.

The company also said it has been a leader in providing education and resource, as well as implementing the best policies and procedures to help combat opioid misuse.

The DOJ filed a similar lawsuit against CVS in December. A spokesperson for that chain has said it strongly disagrees with the allegations and what it called a “false narrative” in the complaint.

Federal prosecutors have been trying to hold companies accountable for their alleged roles in the U.S. addiction and overdose crisis, with opioids tied to over 80,000 annual deaths in some recent years.

During the past decade, most of those deaths have mostly been attributed to illicit fentanyl, which is laced into many illegal drugs. Prescription pills were the primary cause earlier.

Over the past eight years, drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies have agreed to approximately $50 billion in settlements with governments, with the majority of the money going toward fighting the crisis.