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The University of California at Berkeley announced today that it has received a five-year grant from the US National Institute of Aging (NIA), worth $ 47 million, to incorporate advanced brain imaging into The Alzheimer's Association's groundbreaking clinical trial, the American Study of Brain Health Protection through an Intervention to Reduce Lifestyle Risks (US POINTER), in order to determine whether lifestyle modifications can protect the memory of people at risk of developing dementia.
The Expanded Study will be the first large-scale study of how lifestyle interventions, including exercise, diet, cognitive stimulation, and health coaching, affect well-known biological markers of Alzheimer's disease and brain dementia.
US POINTER is a two-year, $ 35-million Alzheimer's Association-led clinical study to determine whether lifestyle-based interventions aimed at combining healthy eating Physical activity, social and intellectual challenges and increased medical surveillance of vascular and metabolic conditions can protect the cognitive function of older people. (Aged 60 to 79 years) who have an increased risk of cognitive decline later in life. US POINTER is the first study to examine these multidimensional interventions combined in a large-scale population based in the United States.
The US $ 47 million NIA grant from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH grant number R01AG062689) will support the US POINTER Neuroimaging Ancillary Study, which will use advanced brain imaging techniques (amyloid positron emission tomography (PET), PET and magnetic resonance (MRI) tau to evaluate the biological effects of these interventions on brain health, including global and regional shape, size and blood flow to the brain , as well as risk indicators for heart health and small vessel disease.
Susan Landau, Ph.D., a neuroscience researcher at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at Berkeley University in Berkeley, is the principal investigator of the complementary study.
"A healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle are generally recognized as good for you, but US POINTER is the first major randomized controlled trial to examine whether lifestyle changes actually affect brain changes related to Alzheimer's disease, "said Landau. "Lifestyle modification is a non-drug option accessible to people and that may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease."
"The US POINTER study gives us the opportunity to ask ourselves whether diet and exercise can actually change the brain and, ultimately, the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias," added M Landau.
The proposed study responds to the recommendations of the NIA's 2018 Research Summit that encourage rigorous investigations into lifestyle change as a disease-modifying treatment to prevent Alzheimer's and Alzheimer's disease. 39, other dementias.
This groundbreaking project is an unprecedented examination of how lifestyle "therapies" can alter our brains in ways related to Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and overall brain health.
U.S. POINTER is designed to determine which lifestyle interventions have a tangible impact on our brains. The addition of brain imaging is an important element that could provide a roadmap for brain health to reduce the risk of dementia before the symptoms appear. "
Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., Scientific Officer of the Alzheimer's Association
Implications for public health
According to the Facts and Figures report of the Alzheimer's Association's 2019 Alzheimer's disease, approximately 5.8 million Americans of all ages live with Alzheimer's dementia, and Alzheimer's is the sixth cause of death in the United States. nearly triple to 13.8 million by 2050.
Previous results suggest that the benefits of lifestyle changes on brain health in the elderly are potentially more important than the pharmacological treatments tested to date. In addition, changing a healthy lifestyle is an affordable and accessible approach that has health benefits that go beyond the health of the brain.
The Finnish Study on Geriatric Interventions to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER) has shown that in at-risk adults, lifestyle interventions improve cognitive function by 25% compared to adults randomized to health. The success of FINGER has led to the creation of US POINTER and many additional national studies based on this model, which are now coordinated through an interdisciplinary global network known as World Wide Fingers.
The trial in the United States is characterized by a critical approach to recruitment, which aims to include a geographically, racially and ethnically diverse population. This can help ensure that the intervention will be applicable to a large proportion of older people. U.S. POINTER was selected for four sites (Winston-Salem, NC, Houston, TX, Davis, CA and Chicago, IL). Another site is expected to be online later this year.
Just over half of the participants in the US POINTER study (up to 1,250 out of 2,000) will be badessed by PET imaging at the start of the study and after two years to measure amyloid accumulation. and tau, two proteins whose accumulation in the brain has been reduced. related to Alzheimer's dementia and MRI at baseline, one year and two years, to measure brain region size, identify lesions badociated with stroke or other vascular changes, and observe changes in flow rate cerebral blood.
Landau notes:
The brain markers of dementia, measured at the beginning of the study, can predict which will best respond to interventions, which could inform future approaches to precision medicine in health care. "
Source:
University of California, Berkeley
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