Active clinical trials for "Alzheimer Disease"

Measuring the rate of cerebral protein synthesis (rCPS) may enable us to better-understand the progression of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). This study is using a new method of measuring rCPS non-invasively, and to offer new approaches to the assessment of new therapeutic strategies in clinical trials. Previous studies have established the utility of [11C]-Leucine PET to assess the rCPS. This study will use [11C]- Leucine PET to measure rCPS in AD patients versus age-matched and young healthy subjects to determine whether a measurable difference exists. The study will involve participants receiving up to two PET scans, a structural MRI scan. The PET scanning procedures will involve some withdrawal of blood samples. The ultimate goal of this proposal is to indicate new routes for treatment of AD.

Background: - Participants in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging are being studied to examine changes in brain structure and function over time, and to determine if these changes can predict the likelihood that an individual will develop thinking and memory impairments such as Alzheimer s disease later in life. Imaging studies and neuropsychological testing have been conducted on current participants, and new participants are being recruited to the study. To develop better treatments and therapies for aging-related memory loss and other disorders, researchers are interested in determining whether early prediction of thinking and memory impairments are accurate and in evaluating factors that affect these predictions. Objectives: - To use imaging studies and tests of thinking and memory to determine early markers of Alzheimer s disease and other cognitive impairments. Eligibility: - Current participants and new recruits to the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Design: Participants will be screened with a full medical history and physical examination, as well as blood and urine tests. Participants will have testing visits as directed by the study researchers. All participants will have tests as part of their an initial enrollment in the study, and may be asked to return yearly, 2 years later, or 4 years later for repeated tests. At each visit, participants will have brain imaging scans (including magnetic resonance imaging and/or magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure brain structure and function, and positron emission tomography to study blood flow in the brain) to evaluate brain structure and function. Participants will also take tests of memory and problem-solving skills. Treatment will not be provided as part of this protocol.

The purpose of this study is to quantify the brain distribution of the nicotinic receptors in human volunteers and their alterations in patients suffering from neurological diseases such as Parkinson and Alzheimer diseases and familial epilepsy. This will be done using Postron Emission Tomography (PET) and a new radiotracer of the nicotinic receptors.

Current scales are not suited to a direct measure for the elderly with cognitive disorders and are difficult to handle for the care teams. In this context, a visual analog scale was created to answer a single question "How are you feeling now, immediately?" with the help of pictograms. This study aims to assess the validity and reliability of the Scale of Well-Being Assessment (SIWA) (in french : Echelle d'Evaluation Instantanée du Bien-Etre (EVIBE)) in people with Alzheimer's disease or a related disease.

The main objective of this study is to compare the distribution of Florbetaben (NEURACEQ: FBB) in the brain in amyloid cerebral angiopathy (ACA) manifested by isolated hemosiderosis in non-demented patients with that observed in healthy subjects, patients with ACA and with lobar hematoma(s) and patients with Alzheimer's dementia without MRI signs in favor of ACA.

The purpose of this research study is to evaluate tau distribution in the brain of subjects with: FTD caused by different genetic mutations, any mutation carriers (with or without symptoms), any non-mutation carrier, any sporadic FTD, normal controls.

The aim of the protocol is to study the resting brain activation profile of 3 groups of people, using a new fMRI procedure, called fMRI-SAM. fMRI-SAM will be applied to 25 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, 25 patients suffering from amnestic - mild cognitive impairment (MCI) - a clinical picture which may be a prodromal form of AD - and 60 healthy controls. The first analysis of the data will search differences of brain activation profiles between the 3 groups. In the second step, the investigators will study the predictive value of fMRI-SAM to detect MCI patients who will later convert to AD.

The Cognitive Neuroscience Section of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke proposes to continue its cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of cerebral metabolism in frontal lobe dementias and atypical basal ganglia disorders. These studies include repeated assessments of neuropsychological and brain anatomical and metabolic function in subjects with these important and possibly related brain disorders.

The aim is to understand which components of attentional deployment and selection are impaired in AD during searching in realistic scenes on a computer screen (Experiment 1) and in a natural setting (Experiment 2).The investigators will also examine how deficits in visual exploration may be related to impairments in semantic, long-term memory (LTM) and working memory (WM) representations by manipulating the semantic consistency between the target and its visual surroundings, and the type of target cue (abstract vs. precise), respectively. Perceptual saliency of target and distractor objects will be also manipulated in Expt.1, In Expt.2, in order to determine how deficits in visual exploration may be involved in the IADL deficits shown by AD patients, participants at each trial will be required to search in a natural settings different types of targets and then to perform an IADL using five objects, among which one of the searched targets. Measures analysed: for the search tasks (Expt. 1 and 2): eye movements in different search phases, accuracy and response times; for IADLs tasks (Expt. 2): eye movements during action planning and execution, motor efficiency (number and types of action performed), time to terminate the activity. Compared to controls, the investigators expect that AD patients will have reduced ability using scene semantic LTM in order to locate the objects, greater attentional capture from highly salient features and greater search performance impairment when higher WM resources are required (abstract target cues). The investigators also expect that their performance at IADLs will be less efficient and, in particular, less organized than control, with reduced advantage of eye guidance.

This Clinical Trial is an open, non-randomized Phase Ib study to determine the maximal tolerable dose (MTD) of Vorinostat in Alzheimer disease (AD) patients between (including) 55 and 90 years with mild symptoms. The MTD in this study is defined as the dose that leads to maximum toxicity with Common Toxicity Criteria (CTC) grade 1 symptoms.The safety and tolerability of Vorinostat in this group of study participants should be tested.