PHOENIX (April 21, 2008) — The National Institute on Aging has awarded a team of Arizona researchers with a five-year, $6.6 million grant to continue a landmark brain imaging study exploring the cognitive decline of healthy people at varying degrees of genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
The NIA awarded its grant of $6,649,203 to researchers from Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and Mayo Clinic. The funding will continue a study that uses Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans to track brain changes in about 200 healthy people who carry two copies, one copy or no copies of a common Alzheimer’s susceptibility gene known as APOE4.
The study team also includes researchers from Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Translational Genomics Research Institute, all partnering institutions in the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium.
The research team has demonstrated in numerous studies published in major medical and scientific peer-reviewed journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, that it can track declines in brain activity and brain size prior to the onset of memory and thinking problems in people who carry the APOE4 gene. The gene is found in about one out of every four people.
During the next five years, the team will study the extent to which brain changes captured by its imaging methods predict declines in memory and thinking, and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. It will also begin to track the earliest onset of amyloid plaques, protein deposits that are a hallmark of the disease pathology, using the PET tracer Pittsburgh Compound B.
In addition, the team will continue to study research volunteers from the Latino community to determine how the data from this understudied minority group compare to the rest of the study population.
“My colleagues and I are grateful to the National Institute on Aging, the state of Arizona, the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium, our participating institutions, and our valued research volunteers for supporting this important research project,” said Eric M. Reiman, M.D., executive director of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and the study’s principal investigator. “We truly believe that this work will play a pivotal role in finding effective treatments to end Alzheimer’s disease without losing a generation.”
This study provides a foundation for using brain imaging techniques to evaluate promising treatments to prevent Alzheimer’s disease, without waiting many years to see whether people in a clinical trial develop symptoms. Results from the study, which began while Dr. Reiman worked at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, were a factor in Banner’s commitment to the creation of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute which opened in 2006. The Institute intends to use the brain imaging technology to test a different potential prevention therapy every three years until it finds one that works.
Dr. Reiman and Richard Caselli, M.D., chairman of the Department of Neurology at Mayo Clinic in Arizona and the study’s co-principal investigator, launched the study about 15 years ago. Dr. Caselli oversees the assessment of memory and thinking problems, while Dr. Reiman oversees the brain imaging research.
“We believe our collaboration in this research serves the people of Arizona who have a vital interest in seeing progress made in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Caselli said.
The grant is retroactive to April 1, 2008.
About Banner Alzheimer’s Institute
The Banner Alzheimer’s Institute provides clinical care for patients with memory and thinking problems; offers education, referral and support services for family and caregivers; and conducts leading-edge research in clinical trials, brain imaging and genetics studies. The Institute is devoted to finding effective Alzheimer’s disease-slowing and prevention treatments in the shortest time possible. Banner Alzheimer’s Institute is owned and operated by Phoenix-based Banner Health, a nonprofit organization.
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, nonprofit group practice in the world. As a leading academic medical center in the Southwest, Mayo Clinic focuses on providing specialty and surgical care in more than 65 disciplines at its outpatient facility in north Scottsdale and at Mayo Clinic Hospital. The 244 licensed-bed hospital is located at 56th Street and Mayo Boulevard (north of Bell Road) in northeast Phoenix, and provides inpatient care to support the medical and surgical specialties of the clinic, which is located at 134th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.
About Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium
The Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium is a laboratory without walls designed to leverage the strengths of its seven member institutions to promote the scientific understanding of Alzheimer's disease. The Consortium is attacking Alzheimer’s disease by combining breakthroughs in genomic medicine and cutting-edge research with data from sophisticated brain imaging programs and advanced clinical trials to identify new therapeutic options for patients. Consortium members include: Arizona State University, Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, Barrow Neurological Institute, Mayo Clinic Arizona, Sun Health Research Institute, Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), and University of Arizona.
For more information, visit http://www.azalz.org/.