Active clinical trials for "Alzheimer Disease"

The purpose of this study is to begin the process of validating fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) as a biomarker for use in clinical trials and longitudinal studies of clinical progression in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Drug treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors is indicated for treatment of Alzheimer´s disease and in most cases, one of these drugs is prescribed as soon as the diagnosis has been made. Nevertheless, it has been shown in several studies that up to 30% of patients do not benefit from treatment. These drugs can have side effects, most frequently from the gastrointestinal tract with nausea, diarrhea and discomfort in the abdomen as the most frequent signs. It is therefore important to know before the treatment is initiated if the patient will likely benefit from the drug or not. It is not possible today with current knowledge but this project aims to evaluate a specific index, calculated from an EEG registration (the EEG-cholinergic index) for this purpose. A conventional EEG registration is done before treatment and the cholinergic index calculated from the EEG registration is compared to the clinical outcome. The duration of follow up is 6 months with an extension of further 6 months.

G72 gene is located on the common linkage locus in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and it encodes D-amino acid oxidase activator (DAOA). There are evidences that elucidated G72 and D-amino acid oxidase(DAO) together playing a critical role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Recently, reports discovered missense mutations in the DAO (R199W DAO and R38H DAO) are associated with familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FALS), and our preliminary data showed that the level of G72 autoantibody decreases in patients with ALS compared with normal control. Thus, we want to find out whether G72 plays a role in ALS and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer disease and Parkinson's disease. First, we detect G72 protein and its autoantibody in sera of neurodegenerative diseases patients using ELISA and Western blotting, and the data are compared with normal control. We hypothesize the levels of G72 protein and its autoantibody in neurodegenerative diseases are less than those in normal control. Then, we extract genomic DNA of neurodegenerative diseases patients, and use polymerase chain reaction(PCR) to detect single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of G72. We aim to detect G72 missense SNP variants presented in ALS, AD and PD.

Tau pathology and tangles have been associated with cognitive dysfunction causing neurodegeneration. AD, the most abundant tauopathy is characterized by amyloid plaques and tau tangles. An abundance of tau inclusions, in the absence of amyloid deposits, defines Pick's disease (frontotemporal lobar degeneration), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal degeneration (CBD) and other diseases including frontal atrophy associated with cognitive clinical dysfunction of frontal dysexecutive syndrome, progressive nonfluent aphasia and semantic dementia as recently reviewed (Gozes 2010). It is the investigators aim to follow other protein expression [as per recent publications (Marksteiner et al., 2011)] in blood and CSF samples from those tauopathies. Significance: Results should establish the possibility of using tau and other proteins as markers for early detection and disease progression in FTD, also in comparison to Alzheimer's disease (AD).

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.

The purpose of this study is to identify the earliest predictors of memory and brain deterioration in pre-clinical Alzheimer's disease using positron emission tomography (PET) to monitor brain glucose metabolism.

Aims To determine whether the 4 Mountains test of allocentric (i.e. viewpoint-independent) spatial memory, and tests of memory for a recent experience (e.g. watching a brief video), to diagnose the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. We operationalise this as the ability of these tests to predict whether or not an individual progresses from having some cognitive difficulties (diagnosed as 'mild cognitive impairment' MCI) to subsequently developing Alzheimer's disease up to two years later. To assess whether the ability to diagnose early stages of Alzheimer's disease can be improved by combining the scores from different memory tests, from questionnaires assessing spatial and social aspects of everyday life. To assess whether scores on the spatial memory test are correlated with patients' reports of their everyday spatial memory, using a newly-developed questionnaire. Outcome Measures Primary study objective: To determine the ability of allocentric spatial and episodic memory test performance to predict progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's disease. Secondary outcome measure To assess to what extent social characteristics of everyday life may impact upon progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's disease. To correlate allocentric spatial test performance with real-world spatial ability as assessed through a novel spatial questionnaire.

Dementia is a syndrome characterized by cognitive and behavioral impairment in older adults, which usually manifests as memory loss, communication difficulties or changes in mood. Dementias affect around 50 million people in the world, having an impact on their ability to carry out their daily activities, often requiring family and social support. The main cause of dementia in Chile and in the world is Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is characterized by affecting large areas of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, manifesting mainly in alterations in selective memory. The pathogenesis of AD involves the neuronal accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) proteins in the form of extracellular plaques, and tau, which gives rise to neurofibrillary tangles. AD diagnosis is usually made based on clinical criteria, however, the accurate diagnosis of AD is clinical-neuropathological. Several studies have supported the neuropathological study based on the presence of Aβ and tau proteins in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), using them as biomarkers of the disease, which has allowed updating the definition of AD based on them. However, our country does not perform a study of dementia biomarkers in CSF, which is essential for the diagnosis of certainty of the pathology. The objective of this project is to evaluate a set of biomarkers of EA (tau, ptau, Aβ) in CSF and blood of elderly patients who will undergo surgery in the Clinical Hospital of the University of Chile (HCUCH) and in whom it is performed lumbar puncture (LP) by anesthesia, to detect those patients who have these CSF biomarkers and who show lower performance in cognitive evaluations. For this, it is intended to mount a biobank of CSF samples with samples of 30 subjects by conducting a clinical pilot study. Patients will be evaluated prior to surgery with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to determine the presence of cognitive impairment, and CSF samples, obtained by LP, will be analyzed by immunodetection of Aβ40, Aβ42, tau and ptau with multiplex technology. In addition, tau will be detected in platelets by Western Blot of blood samples from patients, and the relationship between plateau tau levels and biomarkers in CSF will be evaluated. Finally, the correlation between performance in cognitive assessment and levels of biomarkers in blood and CSF will be evaluated, in order to assess the usefulness of these markers in the detection of the presence of cognitive impairment.

In this observational study, the investigators aim to evaluate whether changes in the retinal and choroidal circulation, as assessed by Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and the quantification of retinal amyloid deposits using auto-fluorescence and hyperspectral retinal imaging, are correlated with the degree and subtype of dementia and with the presence or absence of a positive amyloid scan. For this purpose, patients with established Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), as well as amyloid positive and amyloid negative Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and aged matched cognitively intact patients will be included in this cross-sectional study.

Drugs with anticholinergic properties are commonly prescribed to older persons despite growing evidence of their significant adverse effects. However, limited data are available concerning their contribution to time of onset of delirium. This study aimed to determine the potential association of higher anticholinergic burden to early-onset of delirium superimposed dementia in the older adult.