Active clinical trials for "Alzheimer Disease"

The goal of this clinical trial is to demonstrate potential improvements in clinical trial methods relating to dementia and cognitive decline. The main questions it aims to answer are: Can an intervention's outcome be better assessed by a latent variable ("δ") integrating cognitive performance with functional status? Can latent biomarkers of δ guide the selection of an intervention that will modulate dementia severity? Can a latent variable, derived from information collected remotely from caregivers, preselect subjects most likely to respond to the intervention? Is the effect of the intervention in fact medicated by changes in the targeted biomarker? In this case, the biomarker will be a latent variable derived from several proteins measured in blood (i.e., so-called "adipokines"). The intervention will be donepezil, a medication approved for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, but only recently associated with adipokine changes. Participants with cognitive impairment and their caregivers will be interviewed by telephone and those with cognitive impairment will be treated for six-months with donepezil. On the basis of the caregiver's report, the cognitively impaired subjects will be assigned to two groups based on a prediction of their response to donepezil. Researchers will compare those groups to see if dementia severity, as measured by δ, improves in predicted responders, and whether the change in the d-score is mediated by changes in adipokines.

The main aim of the study is to characterize and understand the pathological mechanisms underlying the motoric cognitive risk syndrome, which is a predictor of Alzheimer disease.

The goal of this observational longitudinal study is to investigates whether tear fluid is a non-invasive source of biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease. The main aim of the study is to evaluate diagnostic accuracy measures (sensitivity and specificity) of tear and retinal biomarkers to discriminate individuals with and without neurodegeneration. Tear fluid from participants will be collected non-invasively with Schirmer's strips, which is a small paper strip placed in the lower eye lid for a maximum of 5 minutes. Additionally, standard, ultra-wide field and cross-sectional retinal images will be obtained.

In this study, the investigators will use a novel electroencephalogram (EEG) system that participants will wear during a single in-person research session to investigate whether ERPs are now ready for validation as a tool clinicians can easily implement to increase diagnostic accuracy and confidence. This EEG will not be used to treat, cure, mitigate or diagnosis any disease and there will be no safety or efficacy data collected about the machine for any purpose including support of FDA submission. The investigators will compare the ERP data to that of neuropsychological testing in order to determine the degree of correlation between these two measures. Questionnaires on cognition, mood, and fluency will be administered prior to the EEG to establish a baseline. ERP data from the EEG session will be compared with the results of the neuropsychological battery in order to determine whether the implementation of ERPs in the existing workflow of clinicians can aid in diagnostic accuracy, thus altering clinical management.

The primary objective of the Vanderbilt Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (VADRC) is to provide local and national researchers with access to a well-characterized and diverse clinical cohort, including participant referrals, biosamples, clinical data, and neuroimaging data. The VADRC Clinical Core will create an infrastructure to support research efforts of both local and national investigator studies to develop early detection, prevention, and treatment strategies for Alzheimer's disease. The Clinical Core intends to enroll up to 1000 participants, including individuals who are cognitively unimpaired, have mild cognitive impairment, or have Alzheimer's disease. This cohort of about 1000 participants will be called the Tennessee Alzheimer's Project. Participants will be seen annually for comprehensive clinical characterization and then referred to other studies to enhance Alzheimer's disease research activities.

The purpose of this study is to assess acceptability, and safety of providing tDCS to ADRD patients with behavioral symptoms and to assess the efficacy of tDCS for ADRD-related symptoms, mainly behavioral symptoms.

The DETECT-AD study (stands for "Digital Evaluations and Technologies Enabling Clinical Translation for Alzheimer's Disease") is a new study designed to improve clinical trials for early Alzheimer's disease. DETECT-AD uses specialized home-based digital devices (electronic scale, electronic pill box, under-the-mattress sleep sensor, motion activity sensors, wrist watch activity tracker, driving sensor, and computer software) to see if the devices will improve clinical trial assessments. This 36- month-long study will simulate a clinical trial to determine how well the home system detects clinically meaningful changes. Participants in DETECT will receive a brain scan to assess their risk for developing Alzheimer's Disease. After the scan, homes will be outfitted with the devices*. Participants will be asked to simply go about their daily routines while data is collected in the background by the digital devices. The scientists will see if there is a change in the digital assessments in four key areas of life activity: mobility (walking speed), cognition (computer use), sleep (sleep times), and socialization (time spent out of home). Participants will be asked to take a daily multivitamin as a study 'drug' to mimic clinical trial conditions. Using these methods, the DETECT study will produce outcome measures that reflect real-world everyday function. Establishing the superiority of these novel methods compared to conventional methods (for example, exams in a clinic) will provide a potential new pathway for speeding the development of muchneeded new treatments for Alzheimer's

Background: Alzheimer's disease is a major health problem in our society. To date, pharmacological treatments to reduce Alzheimer's disease symptoms have obtained poor results and there is a growing interest in finding non-pharmacological treatments for this impactful disease. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is a non-invasive tool which can induce changes in brain activity and long term modifications of impaired neural networks, and therefore holds promise as a clinical intervention. Our overall goal is to study the benefit of targeting Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation based on the individual's unique functional connectivity (personalized targeting) instead of current non-individualized approaches. Specifically, the intermittent Theta Burst protocol will be used and changes in cognitive, functional, and emotional deficits in these patients will be evaluated. Functional brain connectivity changes induced by the TMS treatment will be also assessed. Methods: A double blind randomized controlled trial will be conducted to assess the effects of TMS treatment immediately, one month, three months and six months after the end of the treatment in comparison to the baseline measurements. Forty-five patients with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, will be randomly allocated (1:1:1) into experimental (active Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation), sham control group, or conventional intervention control group. Neuropsychological, functional, and emotional assessment will be conducted, as well as functional connectivity measures, in order to assess the effectiveness of the treatment. Discussion: The investigators expect to demonstrate that personalized Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation intervention has measurable positive impact in cognitive and emotional functioning, functionality, and brain connectivity, thus representing a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

The purpose of this study is to identify potential biomarkers that may predict the development of Alzheimer's disease in people who carry an Alzheimer's mutation.

In AD (Alzheimer disease), the anatomic correlates of attention disorders (as evaluated by motor slowing) have not been thoroughly characterized.