Alzheimer’s early intervention research receives $45 million in NIH funding

An intensified national push to find new approaches aimed at preventing Alzheimer’s disease has prompted $45 million in new clinical trial and translational research awards.

The studies are the first developed through the 2012 NIH Alzheimer’s Disease Research Summit, according to an NIH announcement.

“We know that Alzheimer’s-related brain changes take place years, even decades, before symptoms appear,” NIH Director Richard Hodes, MD, said in the announcement. “That really may be the optimal window for drugs that delay progression or prevent the disease altogether. The clinical trials getting under way with these funds will test treatments in symptom-free volunteers at risk for the disease, or those in the very earliest stages — where we hope we can make the biggest difference.”

Clinical trials supported by the awards:

Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network Trials Unit Trial — Randall Bateman, MD, Washington University, St. Louis, and co-investigators. $1.5 million in fiscal 2013, with the potential for $6 million over 4 years — to test new anti-amyloid-beta drugs in volunteers with inherited forms of Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative APOE4 Trial — Eric Reiman, MD, and Pierre Tariot, MD, Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, Phoenix, and co-investigators. Fully funded in fiscal 2013 at $33.2 million— 5-year prevention trial of an anti-amyloid drug in cognitively normal older volunteers with two inherited copies of the APOE4 allele.
Allopregnanolone Regenerative Therapeutic for MCI/Alzheimer’s: Dose Finding Phase 1 — Roberta Brinton, PhD, and Lon Schneider, MD, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Fully funded in fiscal 2013 at $2.4 million — early-phase clinical trial to evaluate increasing doses of allopregnanolone.

Research focusing on identification and validation of novel therapeutic targets:

Pathway Discovery, Validation and Compound Identification for Alzheimer’s Disease — Philip De Jager, MD,PhD, of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Broad Institute, Harvard University, and David Bennett, MD, of Rush University Medical Center, Chicago. $1.7 million in fiscal 2013, with the potential of $7.9 million over 5 years — to investigate complex molecular networks and candidate genes that influence susceptibility to cognitive decline.
Integrative Biology Approach to Complexity of Alzheimer’s Disease — Eric Schadt, PhD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, and a team of investigators. $1.6 million in fiscal 2013, with the potential of $8.2 million over 5 years — analyze large-scale molecular, cellular and clinical data from Alzheimer’s patients to construct biological network models.
A Systems Approach to Targeting Innate Immunity in Alzheimer’s — Todd Golde, MD,PhD, University of Florida, and colleagues. $1.6 million in fiscal 2013, with the potential of $7.7 million over 5 years — analyze role of the innate immune system and brain inflammation.

An additional award made possible by the new funding is pending.