Active clinical trials for "Alzheimer Disease"

It is hypothesized, that local retinoic acid (RA) homeostasis is functionally involved in the pathophysiology of depression. In a cross-sectional (and partly longitudinal) analysis, serum RA status will be assessed in healthy controls and subjects with Major Depression, Alzheimer's disease, alcoholism and in subjects with schizophrenia.

The cause of Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, remains unknown. Neuropathological studies suggest that a small area in the brainstem, the locus coeruleus, might be the site of the onset of the disease. This area is the sole source of noradrenalin to the brain, a neurotransmitter involved in arousal, but also cognitive functions. Animal and pharmacological studies have hinted towards an important role of this area in memory functioning. However, these studies were hampered by the limited spatial resolution, making it hard to clearly localize the locus coeruleus in the brain. New developments in brain imaging allow now to visualize the brain with stunning precision. Furthermore, a non-invasive new stimulation method, transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation, is believed to excite the locus coeruleus and thereby influencing neuronal networks and memory functioning. There are three aims in this project: To investigate how the functional interaction between the locus coeruleus and other brain areas, in particular the medial temporal lobe areas, during memory processes (encoding, consolidation and retrieval) change with development of Alzheimer's disease. To investigate associations between noradrenaline, memory performance and brain functioning. The investigators aim to investigate how acute noradrenalin levels change during the different memory processes and whether or not this is beneficial for performance. Furthermore, the investigators will investigate whether this interaction between noradrenalin, memory performance and brain functioning is different healthy older individuals (n =35) or patients with prodromal Alzheimer's disease (n =35). To investigate the underlying neural network changes during transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation. The investigators will focus on differences in functional connectivity between the locus coeruleus and the medial temporal lobe areas in healthy older individuals and prodromal Alzheimer's disease patients. An experimental condition will be compared with a sham condition in a pseudo-randomized cross-over design.

The purpose of the study is to determine the long-term safety and exploratory efficacy of NEUROSTEM®-AD, administered via an open brain surgery to subjects with dementia of the Alzheimer's type, who were eligible for and enrolled in the earlier part of the phase I. Aside from the subjects who completed the earlier part of the Phase I, 3 additional subjects with comparable demographics and disease characteristics as the treatment group will be enrolled into a control group, followed-up for 3 months, and compared for various disease progression indicators with the treatment group. The hypothesis is that NEUROSTEM®-AD is safe and effective in the treatment of dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

The purpose of this study is to develop small molecule radio-labeled probes of beta-amyloid, to be used with positron emission tomography (PET) for early detection and treatment monitoring of Alzheimer disease (AD). The study hypothesis is that PET imaging of small molecule probes, in the form of novel fluorescent dyes with radioactive labels, will demonstrate cerebral patterns in patients with AD that are distinct from those of age-matched persons who are cognitively intact.

Beta amyloid immunoreactivity is probably due to a significant number of Ab catabolites corresponding to N-terminally truncated and Cterminally truncated or extended forms which display distinct propensity to aggregation. Very few things are known concerning the mechanisms and proteases by which they are generated. Furthermore, the link between truncation and toxicity has not been delineated. Finally, little is known concerning Ab fragments in biological fluids and whether they could be seen as early biomarkers and thereby, as putative targets for AD diagnostic. The present project will allow to examine the human biological samples and to identify various cohorts after complete clinical evaluation.

The research is aimed at exploring the application of novel tracking technique for the study of spatial activity among dementia patients and its implication on their families. The study sample will be composed of three groups of volunteers, each including100 participants aged over 60 years. The first group will include MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment) patients. The second group will include patients that suffer from mild dementia. The third group will include age matched healthy participants. The tracking equipment will be a GPS apparatus of 450 gms that will be carried by the participants for 24 hours along 2-4 weeks. The GPS data will be transferred via the cellular network to operator center at the Hebrew university at Jerusalem, and will be documented in assigned data files. This monitoring procedure will be held every year and along a period of five years. The impact of the patient behavior on the care giver will be studied by means of five interviews along the tracking period.

Investigators propose in this study to evaluate prospective memory (MP) in all its complexity as well as the processes, cognitive and brain, the underlying. Specifically, investigators propose to evaluate the evolution of the MP during normal aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) to identify the cognitive and brain processes underlying this development. To do this, this study will have to include healthy subjects, 18 to 95 years, patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and patients with probable AD. All participants will undergo a series of examinations, both neuropsychological and brain imaging.

Butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) activity is increasing in Alzheimer Disease (AD) process (Lane et al., 2006). BuChE wild type has stronger butyrylcholine esterase activity than BuChE K variant allele and this strong activity can affect AD brain negatively by choline depletion. Rivastigmine has unique dual action - acetylcholine esterase inhibition and butyrylcholine esterase inhibition. Therefore, rivastigmine can lower serum butyrylcholine esterase activity and delay functional decrease of Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) images in AD patients with BuChE wild type allele by strong BuChE inhibition. It suggests that rivastigmine can affect brain function differently by BuChE genotype in AD. Therefore, we will try to find the different changes of serum butyrylcholine esterase activity by ELISA and functional and structural changes of brain between BuChE wild type and K-variant type by FDG PET and MRI pre and post images after 12 month use of rivastigmine. Primary objective: the mean changes of Standardized Uptake Values (SUVmean) in PET imaging the mean changes of serum BuChE activity between BuChE wild type and K-variant type. Secondary objectives: the mean changes of cortical thickness in brain MRI the cognitive changes in Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog) the cognitive changes in Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) the daily function changes by Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study - Activities of Daily Living (ADCS-ADL) the behavioural changes by Caregiver-Administered Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) the disease severity changes by Clinical Dementia Rating Scale-Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) between BuChE wild type and K-variant type.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES -Establish a registry for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and subcortical ischemic vascular dementia (SIVD) STUDY DESIGN -This is a non-randomized, natural history, observational, registry study. SAMPLE SIZE AND RECRUITMENT - Five hundred subjects will be enrolled at each clinical site (50 NC, 200 with MCI, 50 with AD, 100 with vMCI, and 100 with SIVD) SUMMARY OF KEY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA Newly enrolled subjects will be between 50-80 (inclusive) years of age. 1) Cognitively Normal Subjects 2) MCI subjects 3) AD subjects 4) vMCI or SIVD PROCEDURES Recruited subjects will have clinical/cognitive assessments, biomarker and genetic sample collection, and imaging. Subjects will be followed up for 36 months from the baseline visit. All assessments are to be performed every year from baseline(0, 12, 24, 36 months), except; 1) FDG-PET and amyloid-PET will be performed every two years, i.e., on baseline and at 24 month visit. 2) CSF collection will also be performed on baseline and at 24 months visit. 3) Clinical/cognitive assessment and MRI evaluation will additionally be done at 6 months from baseline to determine short term change. OUTCOME MEASURES Group differences for each clinical, cognitive, biochemical, and imaging measurement. Rate of conversion or change of disease severity will be evaluated among all groups Correlations among biomarkers and biomarker changes

To investigate the safety of deep brain stimulation in the treatment of severe Alzheimer's disease (AD); to investigate the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation in the treatment of severe AD, i.e., effects of deep brain stimulation on cognitive function in patients with severe AD and dementia grading; to investigate the effects of deep brain stimulation on cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with severe AD.