Alzheimer’s Association awards grant to study drug treatments

The Alzheimer’s Association recently announced a $4.3 million research grant for a new phase of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network Trials Unit study called Next Generation.

“This funding will quicken efforts to launch and expand the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network Trials Unit (DIAN-TU) NexGen trial, creating the foundation for a new generation of clinical trials. DIAN-TU NexGen will accelerate both the testing of potential therapies and allow for the consideration and execution of combination therapy, which has the potential to make a real impact on those with the disease,” Maria Carrillo, PhD, chief science officer of the Alzheimer's Association, said in a press release. “Having a treatment that can delay the onset of Alzheimer's is projected to reduce the number of individuals affected by the disease by 2.5 million within the first five years it is available.”

Led by researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, DIAN-TU is a large-scale clinical trial of pharmacological treatments to stop or slow Alzheimer’s disease in individuals who dominantly inherited the disease.

Researchers are currently assessing solanezumab (monoclonal antibody, Eli Lilly) and gantenerumab (monoclonal antibody, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Hoffmann-La Roche).

DIAN-TU is an extension of DIAN, an international network of 17 research centers that conduct long-term observational studies to better understand dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s disease.

With support from the research grant, DIAN-TU NexGen will assess new testing methods, such as tau PET imaging and home-based and increased cognitive testing and drug treatments for accumulation of amyloid brain plaques.

In each drug trial arm, individuals with a gene mutation for Alzheimer’s disease with mild or no symptoms will receive an experimental drug or placebo over a 4-year period. Cognitive tests will be compared at baseline, during and at the end of the trial. Markers of Alzheimer’s disease in body fluids and brain imaging scans will also be assessed.

“Being able to move forward now with DIAN-TU NexGen as a result of this funding is critical to our mission to find a way to stop or slow the progression of Alzheimer's,” Randall Bateman, MD, director of DIAN-TU and DIAN-TU NexGen, said in the release. “Our aim is to find ways to prevent damage and loss of brain cells by intervening early in the disease process — even before outward symptoms are evident. The new components we are adding with the DIAN-TU NexGen are designed to test ways to do exactly that.”