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NIH-Supported Study Looks for Earliest Changes in the Brain That May Lead to Alzheimer’s Disease

By Joel Ross | June 2, 2010

My readers often think and ask, “When is the best time to get tested for possible Alzheimer’s Disease”.
The answer is simple: AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! This study will help identify the biomarkers (this can be an MRI of the brain, analysis of body fluids such as blood, spinal flood, brain imaging using amyloid markers, et al). Please consider volunteering to help yourself and the future generations of individuals who will be diagnosed with dementia of the Alzheimer’s type or what I call, “Amyloid Associated Memory Impairment (AAMI for short).”

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
For Immediate Release: June 2, 2010

CONTACT:
Peggy Vaughn, 301-496-1752,

NIH-Supported Study Looks for Earliest Changes in the Brain That May Lead to
Alzheimer’s Disease

Volunteers are being sought for a clinical study examining the subtle
changes that may take place in the brains of older people many years before
overt symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease appear. Researchers are looking for
people with the very earliest complaints of memory problems that affect
their daily activities. The study will follow participants over time, using
imaging techniques developed to advance research into changes taking place
in the structure and function of the living brain, as well as biomarker
measures found in blood and cerebrospinal fluid.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of
Health, and the NIH Office of the Director are funding the $24 million,
two-year Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative Grand Opportunity
(ADNI-GO) study. Researchers seek to recruit 200 volunteers between the
ages of 55 and 90 who may be transitioning from normal cognitive aging to an
early stage of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), a condition that
may progress to Alzheimer’s disease. Participants may volunteer at 51 sites
across the United States.

“ADNI-GO is part of an ongoing effort to establish imaging and fluid
biomarker measures of Alzheimer’s disease from the onset of mild symptoms to
the advanced stages of the disease process,” said NIA Director Richard J.
Hodes, M.D. “By advancing understanding of the full spectrum of the disease,
we’ll be better able to identify who is at risk, track progression of the
disorder, and devise measurements to test the effectiveness of potential
prevention or treatment strategies.”

The grant expands the efforts of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging
Initiative (ADNI), a research partnership supported primarily by the NIA
with private-sector support through the Foundation for the National
Institutes of Health ADNI began in 2004 to establish neuroimaging and
biomarker measures to track the changes taking place in the brains of 800
older people either free of symptoms or diagnosed with late-stage MCI and
early Alzheimer’s disease. ADNI is led by the Northern California Institute
for Research and Education, a nonprofit foundation affiliated with the San
Francisco VA Medical Center. Michael Weiner, M.D., is the principal
investigator.

The new ADNI-GO effort enables researchers to continue studying nearly 500
of the original ADNI volunteers, while expanding the study to include the
new participants with early amnestic MCI. Newly enrolled participants and
some original study volunteers will undergo a lumbar puncture to collect
cerebrospinal fluids.

“The objective of ADNI-GO is to add to the power of the original study by
increasing our knowledge of the sequence and timing of events involved in
the disease from its earliest measureable point, perhaps even
pre-symptomatically, to overt Alzheimer’s disease,” said Marcelle
Morrison-Bogorad, Ph.D., director of NIA’s Division of Neuroscience.

The ability to gain this knowledge is only possible, Morrison-Bogorad
emphasized, through the generosity of research volunteers. “The research
community is deeply grateful to the volunteers, and their families and
friends, who give of themselves in this search for a cure for or prevention
of Alzheimer’s disease,” she said.

To volunteer or learn more about the study, contact the NIA Alzheimer’s
Disease Education and Referral Center by calling 1-800-438-4380 or by going
to . Volunteers must speak English or Spanish
and have a person willing to assist them during at least five clinic visits
and with telephone contacts from researchers.

Data from the study will be posted to a publicly accessible database
available to qualified researchers worldwide. To date, more than 800
researchers have signed up for ADNI database access. Investigators may apply
for access through the database Web site at www.loni.ucla.edu/ADNI. In
addition, qualified scientists may also ask for access to the cerebrospinal
fluid and blood samples.

In addition to NIA, the original ADNI study involved other federal partners:
the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, also part
of NIH, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, another agency of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. To learn more about ADNI
advances and the private-public partnership supporting the research, go to
.

The NIA leads the federal government effort conducting and supporting
research on the biomedical, social and behavioral issues of older people.
For more information on aging-related research and the NIA, go to
. The NIA provides information on age-related cognitive
change and neurodegenerative disease specifically at its Alzheimer’s Disease
Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center site at .
To sign up for e-mail alerts about new findings or publications, please
visit either website.

FNIH was established by the United States Congress to support the mission of
the National Institutes of Health-improving health through scientific
discovery. The foundation identifies and develops opportunities for
innovative public-private partnerships involving industry, academia and the
philanthropic community. A non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation, the foundation
raises private-sector funds for a broad portfolio of unique programs that
complement and enhance NIH priorities and activities. The foundation’s Web
site address is .

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation’s Medical Research
Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency
for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical
research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs,
visit .

——————————————-
The 51 study sites recruiting volunteers are located in:

Albany, N.Y.
Amherst, N.Y.
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Atlanta
Baltimore
Birmingham, Ala.
Boston
Charleston, S.C.
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Durham, N.C.
Hartford, Conn.
Houston
Indianapolis
Irvine, Calif.
Jacksonville, Fla.
Kansas City, Kan.
Las Vegas
Lebanon, N.H.
Lexington, Ky.
Los Angeles
Madison, Wis.
Miami
New Haven, Conn
New York City
Palo Alto, Calif.
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
Portland, Ore.
Providence, R.I.
Rochester, Minn.
Rochester, N.Y.
Sacramento, Calif.
San Diego
San Francisco
St. Louis
Sun City, Ariz.
Washington
West Palm Beach, Fla.
Winston-Salem, N.C.

This NIH News Release is available online at:
.

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NIH-Supported Study Looks for Earliest Changes in the Brain That May Lead to Alzheimer’s Disease

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