Alzheimer's Disease clinical trials at UC Irvine

In the current study, we will examine how daily paced breathing affects plasma amyloid beta levels and the rate of learning in older adults. Healthy adults aged 50-70 who meet all eligibility criteria will be invited to this study. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the two conditions: 1) Daily memory and attention training followed by a paced breathing protocol designed to increase relaxation or 2) Daily memory and attention training followed by a paced breathing protocol to increase alertness. Participants will be asked to complete pre and post intervention cognitive testing online, engage in 10 weeks of daily brain training (starting Week 2) and 9 weeks of paced breathing (starting Week 3) at home. They will also be asked to come in for lab visits on Weeks 2, 7 and 12 to provide blood and urine samples to assess amyloid beta levels and to complete magnetic resonance imaging scans to assess perivascular space volume.

The purpose of this research study is to understand the factors that underlie changes in thinking and memory with increasing age. The investigators will test the usefulness of MRI, PET, and cognitive testing in detecting subtle changes in the brain that precede cognitive decline. An addendum to this study includes additional PET scans to examine the relationship between tau protein in the brain and cognitive decline. Tau is a protein that is known to form tangles in the areas of the brain important for memory, and these tau tangles are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. This sub-study research aims to look at the tau accumulation in the brain using an investigational drug called MK-6240, which is a radio tracer that gets injected prior to a positron emission tomography (PET) scan.

Since its launch in 2004, the overarching aim of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) has been realized in informing the design of therapeutic trials in AD. ADNI3 continues the previously funded ADNI-1, ADNI-GO, and ADNI-2 studies that have been combined public/private collaborations between academia and industry to determine the relationships between the clinical, cognitive, imaging, genetic and biochemical biomarker characteristics of the entire spectrum of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The overall goal of the study is to continue to discover, optimize, standardize, and validate clinical trial measures and biomarkers used in AD research.

The investigators are researching families with inherited inclusion body myopathy (IBM) and/or Paget disease of bone (PDB) and/or dementia (FTD) which is also called IBMPFD. IBMPFD is caused by mutations in the VCP gene. Our main goal is to understand how changes in the VCP gene cause the muscle, bone and cognitive problems associated with the disease. The investigators are collecting biological specimen such as blood and urine samples, family and medical histories, questionnaire data of patients with a personal or family history of VCP associated disease. Participants do not need to have all symptoms listed above in order to qualify. A select group of participants may be invited to travel to University of California, Irvine for a two day program of local procedures such as an MRI and bone scan. Samples are coded to maintain confidentiality. Travel is not necessary except for families invited for additional testing.

The purpose of the TRC-PAD study is to develop a large, well-characterized, biomarker-confirmed, trial-ready cohort to facilitate rapid enrollment into AD prevention trials utilizing the APT Webstudy and subsequent referral to in-clinic evaluation and biomarker confirmation. Participants with known biomarker status may have direct referral to the Trial-Ready Cohort. If you are interested in being selected for the TRC-PAD study, you should first enroll in the APT Webstudy (https://www.aptwebstudy.org/welcome).