Active clinical trials for "Neurodegenerative Diseases"

Background: The relation between eye movement and brain function is a subject of interest to the National Eye Institute. By comparing eye movement in healthy volunteers to research conducted on patients who have difficulty moving their eyes, the National Eye Institute hopes to develop and improve diagnostic procedures for people with eye diseases. Objectives: -The purpose of this study is to understand how we see visual patterns and how we move our eyes to see. Eligibility: Normal volunteers: must have no serious illnesses and must be 18 years of age or older who are 18 years of age or older must be willing to wear contact lenses that record eye movement. individuals with a history of eye or brain diseases, or previous eye or eye muscle surgery, are not allowed to participate in this study. Individuals who are currently using eye medications also are not eligible for the study. Patients: who are 18 years of age or older must be willing to wear contact lenses that record eye movement. Design: Participants will visit the National Eye Institute outpatient clinic for examination and testing. Participants will be screened with a medical history and eye examination (including eye pressure and eye movement tests). Participants with healthy eyes will participate in eye movement testing experiments: One or more sessions lasting less than three hours each. Eye movements will be recorded with either a special contact lens or a video/infrared camera system. For the majority of the studies done under this protocol, only one or two sessions will be required. A few studies recording very small eye movements will require three or more sessions.

The study will examine the reciprocal relationships between the community, healthcare system, and personal determinants of self-management behaviors in persons with Parkinson's disease and their association with the performance of these behaviors in persons with Parkinson's Disease. In the first part of the study, data will be extracted from electronic medical records of 2500. In the second part of the study, a sub-sample of 200 participants with Parkinson's disease will be asked to answer standardized questionnaires.

The correlation between data obtained by "imaging" in patients with neurodegenerative diseases characterized by inflammation and the presence in the peripheral blood of the same patients "biopsies liquid biopsies" of specific circulating nucleic acids, could enable the development of methods and algorithms capable of identifying novel biomarkers that serve as targets for the development of probes diagnostics and therapeutics. This is the context for the project idea, which is aimed at developing development of a performant multi parameter system capable of identifying novel biomarkers of microglial polarization that can be used for diagnostic and prognostic purposes in determining the staging/progression of neurodegenerative disease

Details regarding the degenerative spine disorders will be collected with a specific focus on the use of osteobiologics in treating degenerative conditions and their impact on fusion, as well as patient-reported outcomes for these conditions.

The goal of this First-In-Human (FIH) trial is to learn about safety and PharmacoKinetics (PK) in healthy adult volunteers. The main questions it aims to answer are: What is the safety of single ascending doses of the FluoroEthylNorMemantine (FENM)? What is the PK profile of single ascending doses of the FENM in human? What is the preliminary exploratory time course of Brain Disease Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) plasmatic levels of single ascending doses of the FENM? Participants will receive one single oral dose of FENM.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an altered brain function caused by an external force, which may annually have 69 million incidence cases all over the world. Increasing evidence suggests that TBI may be a major risk of beta amyloid (Aβ)-associated neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, and Parkinson's disease. Investigations from brain imaging studies revealed that Aβ density maps of TBI patients overlapped with those with Alzheimer's disease, and increased Aβ density not only associated with prolonged TBI duration but also associated with decreased white matter integrity. It has been suggested that the axonal injury and cerebrovascular dysfunction due to TBI may associate with the elevated level of Aβ peptides. The increasing accumulation in Aβ due to TBI may contribute to the initiation of the pathological alterations in neurodegeneration diseases. Recent animal studies suggest that acupuncture may promote regeneration of nerves in injured tissues and reduce the concentration of Aβ in brain. Moreover, recent clinical trials also indicate that acupuncture may improve the vascular cognitive impairment due to cerebral small vessel disease. Thus, acupuncture treatment on TBI may not only be of benefit for the TBI recovery but also act to interrupt the pathological changes in these neurodegenerative diseases.

Mindfulness Based Health Care (MBHC) includes meditation techniques to help caregivers of Alzheimer patients to be made more aware of their experience in the present moment. Half of the caregivers will learn the practice of mindfulness meditation once a week through 8 classes, and the other half will not receive any therapy. The primary purpose of this study is to explore the effects of this mindfulness program for caregivers on the neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer patients, as well as on anxiety and depression symptoms in their caregivers. Secondarily, to examine the effect of this program on cognitive function, daily activity living and quality of life in Alzheimer patients, as well as on the burden of caregiving, quality of life, psychological well-being, occupational balance, executive function and self-compassion in their caregivers.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and currently has no disease modifying treatments or simple accurate diagnostic tests. The goal of this project is to study how tau (a protein thought to cause AD) is made, transported and cleared in the human body. Better understanding of these processes may lead to improved understanding of AD, earlier diagnosis and a way to evaluate treatment.

To perform a clinical evaluation of safety and performance for the SeaSpine Non- Cervical Pedicle Screw Systems

This study will investigate the efficacy of novel biomarkers, namely blood-based biomarkers, pupillometry and actigraphy to track and predict progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Furthermore, the study will investigate the diagnostic value of pupillometry and actigraphy for AD.