CTAD Conference Highlights Our Funded Research

This Wednesday marks the beginning of National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month and the 10^th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease (CTAD) conference in Boston. In recent years, CTAD has included more non-amyloid drugs as well as those being developed at smaller biopharmaceutical companies. This shift has resulted in a record number of our researchers, drug programs, and clinical partnerships in this year’s CTAD program. Research programs and investigators supported by the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) are showcased in the CTAD presentations and posters listed below.

ADDF-Supported Drugs

The following 11 sessions all feature Alzheimer’s treatments that have received support from the ADDF (funded drugs in bold).

• OC1: A Phase 2a Exploratory Endpoint Trial in Mild-Moderate Alzheimer’s Disease of LM11A-31
• P14: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Cross-Over Trial Investigating Nabilone as a Treatment for Agitation in Patients with Advanced Alzheimer’s Disease
• P28: BPN14770 Phosphodiesterase-4D Negative Allosteric Modulator for Alzheimer’s Dementia: Preclinical, PET Imaging and Human Phase 1 Results & OC32: BPN14770 Phosphodiesterase-4D Negative Allosteric Modulator for Alzheimer’s Dementia: Preclinical, PET Imaging and Human Phase 1 Results
• LBP27: NILVAD: A Phase 3 Clinical Trial of Nilvadipine in Mild to Moderate Alzheimer’s Disease
• LBP28: Biomarker Outcomes from the Phase 1b/2a Safety Trial of the Anti-Aβ Oligomer Drug CT1812 in Alzheimer’s Patients & LB13: The Anti-Aβ Oligomer Drug CT1812 for Alzheimer’s: Phase 1b/2a Safety Trial Outcomes
• P124: ACD855, Development of a Positive Modulator of Neurotrophin Signaling for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease
• LBP17: Phase 1 Study of the Muscarinic M1 Positive Allosteric Modulator VU319 for Alzheimer’s Disease: Exploration of Novel Markers of Target Engagement
• LBP24: Allopregnanolone as a Regenerative Therapeutic for Alzheimer’s Disease: Phase 1b/2a Outcomes
• OC29: ORY-2001 Rationale in Mild to Moderate Alzheimer’s Disease

Partnerships

Partnerships are critical to the success of clinical trials in Alzheimer’s, which face challenging patient recruitment and lack of validated biomarkers. We are proud to be involved in partnerships designed to address these issues. Much of this work was made possible by the Amyvid^TM (florbetapir) PET scan, which was seed-funded by the ADDF. Sessions featuring work from our partners follow:

Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

• P1: Japanese ADNI: Clinical, Neuroimaging and Biomarker Profiles in Comparison with ADNI
• P8: Clinical and Psychometric Characteristics of Participants with Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease in Japanese ADNI
• P26: Longitudinal Cognitive and Functional Changes are Influenced by Educational History in the J-ADNI MCI Individuals
• LB8: Polygenic Hazard Score: An Enrichment Marker for Alzheimer’s Associated Amyloid and Tau Deposition
• OC34: Stereotypical Data-Driven Imaging Biomarker Trajectories Across the Alzheimer’s Disease Spectrum
• OC16: Selection of Amyloid Positive Pre-Symptomatic Subjects Using Automatic Analysis of Neuropsychological and MRI Data for Cost-Effective Inclusion Procedures in Clinical Trials
• OC36: Associating Cognitive Functioning Profiles with Amyloid Status in ADNI2, with Implications for Adaptive Screening for Amyloid
• LBP38: Voxel-Wise Determination of Thresholds for Amyloid and Tau Positivity Using PET May Improve the Population Enrichment of Clinical Trials
• P71: European Validation of the PLM-Scale, a Cerebrospinal Fluid Biological Scale for Positive Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosis
• P76: CSF and Genetic Biomarkers in MCI and AD Subjects in J-ADNI for Predicting Future Outcome

Brain Health Registry

• P15: Enriching Clinical Trial Data through Co-Enrollment with the Brain Health Registry
• LBP4: The Brain Health Registry-IDEAS Study: Evaluating the Feasibility of Internet-Based Data Collection in Cognitively Impaired Older Adults
• OC31: Online Clinical Research: Updates and Insights from the Brain Health Registry

Global Alzheimer’s Platform

• P11: Metric Collection for Research Site Optimization: Global Alzheimer’s Platform Efforts Toward Creating an Alzheimer’s Disease Research Site Database

Other

Additional sessions at CTAD feature ADDF-funded investigators discussing broader issues in the field. The investigators are highlighted in bold below.

• P21: Accounting for Baseline Prognostic Variables and Patient Dropout in the Analysis of Longitudinal Outcomes Within Randomized Trials for Alzheimer’s Disease
  Including Michela Gallagher, PhD, Agenebio
• P115: Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Development Pipeline: 2017
  Including Jeffrey Cummings, MD, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health
• OC6: Amyloid-Beta Oligomers in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Missing Piece of the Alzheimer’s Puzzle
  Including Jeffrey Cummings, MD, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health
• Symposium 5: Synaptic and Network Dysfunction in Alzheimer’s Disease: Translational Insights and Therapeutic Opportunities
  Including panelist Giovanna Mallucci, MD, PhD, University of Cambridge
• LBP51: The Early AD/ MCI Alzheimer’s Cognitive Composite (EMACC): Development and Preliminary Validation across Four Longitudinal Cohorts of a Cognitive Endpoint for Clinical Trials in the MCI and Early Alzheimer’s Stage of Disease
  Including Michelle M. Mielke, PhD, Mayo Clinic
• P100: Prevalence and Progression of Preclinical and Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease Among Non-Demented Persons in a Population-Based Setting
  Including Michelle M. Mielke, PhD, Mayo Clinic