Active clinical trials for "Alzheimer Disease"

The purpose of this research study is to study the effects of dance movement and music on memory and cardiorespiratory fitness in older adults who are concerned about memory loss. The study aims to determine the optimal number of movement or music appreciation classes a week to support brain health and fitness. Participants will be people 65 years or older who are concerned about their memory, but do not yet have a diagnosis of cognitive impairment. If a participant is deemed qualified to participate, he/she will be placed into one of four groups and will attend 1, 2, or 3 group or music appreciation classes per week for 24 weeks (6 months). In addition to attending the group classes, participants will be asked to complete at least four study visits at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center to complete various clinical assessments, including a brain MRI.

Currently, Alzheimer's disease (AD) has no cure putting prevention-strategies in the forefront for impeding the public health and personal consequences of this devastating disease. Seven major potentially modifiable risk factors show consistent association with AD (midlife type 2 diabetes [T2D], midlife hypertension, midlife obesity, physical inactivity, depression, smoking, and low educational attainment), with combined population-attributable risk of 30%1. A recent extensive literature review of randomized control trials on single lifestyle interventions for AD yielded negative results. The multidomain preDIVA2,3 (Prevention of Dementia by Intensive Vascular Care) and MAPT4,5 (Multidomain Alzheimer Prevention Trial) studies raised concerns regarding the multidomain approach. The multidomain lifestyle model approach of the FINGER6,7 study (Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability) brought some optimism after it presented positive results; several replication trials around the world have been launched8. However, 1) all trials focus on the elderly, 2) the impact of midlife risk factors on dementia risk is stronger than late life, and 3) the neurodegenerative changes in AD begin decades before its clinical manifestations9. A recent study showed that 2 or more cardiovascular risk factors in midlife (but not late life) predicted amyloid aggregation10. Main goals: To examine the feasibility and provide pilot data on effectiveness of a novel "real-life" personalized 18-months intervention for prevention of cognitive decline in middle-aged individuals (age 40-65-year-old) at high AD risk due to AD parental family history. We will implement an approach "diary-monitoring" ("Risk factors log" which will filled daily by participants, using the REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) software's survey) with study team guidance. We hypothesize that daily risk-factors documentation in personal "Risk factors log" will increase participant's engagement in the intervention and will enable the study team to accumulate health information, in order to improve support and counselling for improvement of risk factors. In addition to examining the feasibility of our approach, we will explore its effectiveness in both improving risk factors values, as well as improving cognitive function by comparing the HAPPCAP-AD intervention group to "control group". Last, our study will lay the foundations for a strong long-term large-scale preventive intervention in the future. We will compare this group to a partially passive control.

Normal aging is associated with a progressive decline in cognitive functions, especially memory. This decline in cognitive function can negatively impact the quality of life of older adults. Although there are currently few possibilities to prevent and/or slow the signs of cognitive decline, both those associated with age and neurodegenerative pathologies, one of the non-invasive brain stimulation techniques that has gained attention in recent years is Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS). tDCS is a technique based on the application of a low-intensity (< 2 mA) direct electrical current between two large-area electrodes placed on various surface areas of the head. Moreover, according to safety-related meta-analyses it is a very safe technique, without any major side effects, provided that internationally established safety protocols are taken into account in its application. This technique has recently been investigated as a potential treatment for both healthy elderly people and people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease in several cognitive variables, having shown encouraging results in working memory learning curves, modulation of plasticity and recognition tasks. This project aims to implement an intervention using transcranial direct current stimulation in healthy older adults, MCI and AD. The main objective is to test if there is an improvement in cognitive efficiency and if the changes are maintained over time (1 month). For this purpose, the effect of the technique will be studied on participants assigned to treatment and control groups, analyzing the possible modifications in the following cognitive variables: cognitive plasticity and learning potential, recognition and familiarity and false alarms.

The Swedish BioFINDER 2 study is a new study that will launch in 2017 and extends the previous cohorts of BioFINDER 1 study (www.biofinder.se). BioFINDER 1 is used e.g. to characterize the role of beta-amyloid pathology in early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) using amyloid-PET (18F-Flutemetamol) and Aβ analysis in cerebrospinal fluid samples. The BioFINDER 1 study has resulted in more than 40 publications during the last three years, many in high impact journals, and some the of the results have already had important implications for the diagnostic work-up patients with AD in the clinical routine practice. The original BioFINDER 1 cohort started to include participants in 2008. Since then there has been a rapid development of biochemical and neuroimaging technologies which enable novel ways to the study biological processes involved in Alzheimer's disease in living people. There has also been a growing interest in the earliest stages of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases. With the advent of new tau-PET tracers there is now an opportunity to elucidate the role of tau pathology in the pathogenesis of AD and other tauopathies. The Swedish BioFINDER 2 study has been designed to complement the BioFINDER 1 study and to e.g. address issues regarding the role of tau pathology in different dementias and in preclinical stages of different dementia diseases. Further, the clinical assessments and MRI methods have been further optimized compared to BioFINDER 1.

Encephalopathies are a group of central nervous system (CNS) affection with heterogeneous etiology. Several causes have been recognized including neurodegenerative, vascular, infectious, autoimmune, toxic or allergic affections or secondary to systemic disorders. While 30-50% of acute encephalitis remains without etiological definition, definitive criteria for neurodegenerative diseases are usually unavailable in vivo and possible or probable definitions are used. The Olfactory mucosa (OM) is the part of the nasal mucosa that carries the specialized sensory organ for the modality of smell; the olfactory epithelium is composed of five principal cell types including olfactory receptor neurons. A sample of OM may be collected through a rhinoscopy-guided brushing: it is well-accepted by patients, not-contraindicated in patients with raised intracranial pressure and associated with almost no side-effects. Nasal brushing has recently been proposed for the in vivo diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Aims of the project are: Training of ear throat and nose (ETN), Infectious disease (ID) and neurology (NEU) specialists in the technique of nasal brushing; Conducting a prospective study comparing the use of nasal brushing with gold-standard criteria in the diagnosis of Encephalopathies; Increasing the diagnostic and prognostic power in the diagnosis of encephalopathies. A prospective, case control, multicentric study enrolling 400 patients and 100 controls (patients with nasal stenosis undergoing rhinoscopy for clinical reasons). Patients will be diagnosed and followed according to international guidelines and local clinical practice. Cerebrospinal fluid and magnetic resonance imaging will be used, where indicated, for the diagnosis according to the clinical or radiological suspect.

A cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT) called "Reducing Risk of Dementia through Deprescribing" (R2D2) to evaluate the impact of a deprescribing intervention on important cognitive and safety outcomes.

This is a long-term, prospective, interventional study to investigate the role and prevalence of subclinical epileptiform activity in the hippocampus in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer's disease (AD). The investigators would like to investigate whether subclinical epileptiform activity in the hippocampus is more prevalent in patients with MCI, compared to healthy controls and to evaluate its effects on cognitive decline. Evolution of cognitive decline will be assessed over a time period of two years.

The purpose of this open label study is to evaluate longer term tolerability and early efficacy of transcranial ultrasound in the treatment of patients with mild cognitive impairment or dementia.

Dementia is the most expensive medical condition in the US and increases in prevalence with age. More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia. Mild cognitive impairment is a transitional stage between normal cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease or another type of dementia, and is indicative of higher risk for dementia. In addition to the obvious health and quality-of-life ramifications of dementia, there are high direct (e.g., subsidizing residential care needs) and indirect (e.g., lost productivity of family caregivers) economic costs. Implementing interventions to prevent MCI and dementia among older adults is of critical importance to health and maintained quality-of-life for millions of Americans. Recent data analyses from the Advanced Cognitive Training in Vital Elderly study (ACTIVE) indicate that a specific cognitive intervention, speed of processing training (SPT), significantly delays the incidence of cognitive impairment across 10 years. The primary contribution of the proposed research will be the determination of whether this cognitive training technique successfully delays the onset of clinically defined MCI or dementia across three years.

This study is a multicentre, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial that aims to investigate the efficacy of multi-domain life-style intervention including low inflammatory-index diet, exercise, and cognitive training in patients with mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer's disease.