The EMIF-AD PreclinAD study: Study design and baseline cohort overview

Elles Konijnenberg*, Stephen F. Carter, Mara Ten Kate, Anouk Den Braber, Jori Tomassen, Chinenye Amadi, Linda Wesselman, Hoang Ton Nguyen, Jacoba A. Van De Kreeke, Maqsood Yaqub, Matteo Demuru, Sandra D. Mulder, Arjan Hillebrand, Femke H. Bouwman, Charlotte E. Teunissen, Erik H. Serné, Annette C. Moll, Frank D. Verbraak, Rainer Hinz, Neil PendletonAdriaan A. Lammertsma, Bart N.M. Van Berckel, Frederik Barkhof, Dorret I. Boomsma, Philip Scheltens, Karl Herholz, Pieter Jelle Visser

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalReview articleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Background: Amyloid pathology is the pathological hallmark in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and can precede clinical dementia by decades. So far it remains unclear how amyloid pathology leads to cognitive impairment and dementia. To design AD prevention trials it is key to include cognitively normal subjects at high risk for amyloid pathology and to find predictors of cognitive decline in these subjects. These goals can be accomplished by targeting twins, with additional benefits to identify genetic and environmental pathways for amyloid pathology, other AD biomarkers, and cognitive decline. Methods: From December 2014 to October 2017 we enrolled cognitively normal participants aged 60 years and older from the ongoing Manchester and Newcastle Age and Cognitive Performance Research Cohort and the Netherlands Twins Register. In Manchester we included single individuals, and in Amsterdam monozygotic twin pairs. At baseline, participants completed neuropsychological tests and questionnaires, and underwent physical examination, blood sampling, ultrasound of the carotid arteries, structural and resting state functional brain magnetic resonance imaging, and dynamic amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) scanning with [18F]flutemetamol. In addition, the twin cohort underwent lumbar puncture for cerebrospinal fluid collection, buccal cell collection, magnetoencephalography, optical coherence tomography, and retinal imaging. Results: We included 285 participants, who were on average 74.8 ± 9.7 years old, 64% female. Fifty-eight participants (22%) had an abnormal amyloid PET scan. Conclusions: A rich baseline dataset of cognitively normal elderly individuals has been established to estimate risk factors and biomarkers for amyloid pathology and future cognitive decline.

Original languageEnglish
Article number75
Pages (from-to)1-12
Number of pages12
JournalAlzheimer's Research and Therapy
Volume10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Aug 2018

Funding

This work has received support from the EU/EFPIA Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking EMIF grant agreement n°115372. This work also received in-kind sponsoring of the Diagnostick device from Applied Biomedical Systems BV, the CANTAB device from Cambridge Cognition, the CSF assay from ADx NeuroSciences, and the PET tracer from GE Health Care. CET has functioned on advisory boards of Fujirebio and Roche, received nonfinancial support in the form of research consumables from ADxNeurosciences and Euroimmun, and performed contract research or received grants from Janssen Prevention Center, Boehringer, Brainsonline, AxonNeurosciences, EIP farma, and Roche. FB is supported by the NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Center and has received consulting fees or honoraria from Novartis, Roche, Bayer-Schering, Biogen-IDEC, Genzyme-Sanofi, TEVA, Merck-Serono, Jansen Research, IXICO Ltd, GeNeuro, and Apitope Ltd. AH reports reimbursements for conference from Elekta Oy. BNMvB is a trainer for the visual interpretation of [18F]flutemetamol PET scans, and does not receive personal compensation for this. The remaining authors declare that they have no competing interests

FundersFunder number
EU/EFPIA
Janssen prevention center
Merck-Serono
NIHR UCLH
Roche
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
Seventh Framework Programme115372

    Keywords

    • Amyloid
    • Cognitively normal
    • Monozygotic twins
    • Preclinical Alzheimer's disease
    • [F]flutemetamol

    Cohort Studies

    • Netherlands Twin Register (NTR)

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'The EMIF-AD PreclinAD study: Study design and baseline cohort overview'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this