Design of a comprehensive Alzheimer’s disease clinic and research center in Spain to meet critical patient and family needs

AbstractObjectivesAlzheimer's disease (AD) affects people worldwide, and the prevalence is increasing as the population ages. There is an international effort to understand the biology of AD to develop primary and secondary prevention strategies, and to develop effective therapeutic interventions for individuals who are already symptomatic. One of the critically important pieces of all national plans to address AD is the call for the development of service models to deliver quality, effective care based on the best evidence available.MethodsWe describe one type of care model developed by the Fundacio ACE, Institut Catala de Neurociencies Aplicades (Fundacio ACE, Barcelona, Spain) that integrates diagnosis, therapy, follow-up care, daycare, and a day hospital, and does so in the context of an active clinical research and educational program.ResultsThere were 13,048 individuals newly evaluated and diagnosed in Fundacio ACE between 1996 and 2011. Of these, 6132 had AD (47.0%), 3871 had mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (29.7%), and 1958 had no cognitive impairment (15.0%). Follow-up information is available on 4735 (47.3%) AD and MCI patients, and these data indicate that MCI develops into dementia at a rate of 222.6/1000 person-years. Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotyping was available in 22.4% of the patients. The ε4 allele occurred in 45.7% of the AD patients, in 37.8% of the MCI subjects, and in 31.6% of those without cognitive impairment.ConclusionsFundació ACE can serve as a model system that can be adapted to other settings within their specific cultural, governmental, and legal constraints

Clinical Applicability of the Specific Risk Score of Dementia in Type 2 Diabetes in the Identification of Patients with Early Cognitive Impairment : results of the MOPEAD Study in Spain

Altres ajuts: This research was funded by the European Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI2) Project-grant number 115985.Introduction: Although the Diabetes Specific Dementia Risk Score (DSDRS) was proposed for predicting risk of dementia at 10 years, its usefulness as a screening tool is unknown. For this purpose, the European consortium MOPEAD included the DSDRS within the specific strategy for screening of cognitive impairment in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients attended in a third-level hospital. Material and Methods: T2D patients > 65 years, without known cognitive impairment, attended in a third-level hospital, were evaluated. As per MOPEAD protocol, patients with MMSE ≤ 27 or DSDRS ≥ 7 were referred to the memory clinic for complete neuropsychological assessment. Results: 112 T2D patients were recruited. A total of 82 fulfilled the criteria for referral to the memory unit (43 of them declined referral: 48.8% for associated comorbidities, 37.2% lack of interest, 13.95% lack of social support). At the Fundació ACE's Memory Clinic, 34 cases (87.2%) of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 3 cases (7.7%) of dementia were diagnosed. The predictive value of DSDRS ≥ 7 as a screening tool of cognitive impairment was AUROC = 0.739, p 0.024, CI 95% (0.609-0.825). Conclusions: We found a high prevalence of unknown cognitive impairment in TD2 patients who attended a third-level hospital. The DSDRS was found to be a useful screening tool. The presence of associated comorbidities was the main factor of declining referral

Patient Engagement: The Fundacio ACE Framework for Improving Recruitment and Retention in Alzheimer's Disease Research

Alzheimer's disease (AD) research is at a critical time. The global society is increasingly aware of the frightening rate of growth of the human and financial burden caused by this condition and of the urgent need to halt its progression. Consequently, the scientific community holds great responsibility to quickly put in place and optimize the machinery necessary for testing newtreatments or interventions. In this context demand for participants forADresearch is at an all-time high. In this review, we will focus on a methodological factor that is increasingly recognized as a key factor that shapes trial populations and affects validity of results in clinical trials: patient engagement, recruitment, and retention. We outline specific problems relevant to patient engagement in AD including recruiting enough participants, difficulties in participant retention, ensuring the recruited sample is representative of the general AD population, the burden of screening failures, and new challenges related to recruiting in preclinical disease. To address the urgent need for more research studying the applicability and cost-effectiveness of different recruitment strategies across different settings and nationalities, we describe the Models of Patient Engagement for Alzheimer's Disease (MOPEAD) project, a public-private partnership promoted by the Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI), which will provide a large multinational quantitative analysis comparing different innovative recruitment models. We also discuss strategies that address each problem and draw on the experience of Fundacio Ace to argue that focusing resources on comprehensive AD centers that offer coordinated clinical and social care and participate in basic and clinical research, is an effective and efficient way of implementing many of the discussed strategies

Genome-wide meta-analysis for Alzheimer's disease cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers

Amyloid-beta 42 (A?42) and phosphorylated tau (pTau) levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) reflect core features of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) more directly than clinical diagnosis. Initiated by the European Alzheimer & Dementia Biobank (EADB), the largest collaborative effort on genetics underlying CSF biomarkers was established, including 31 cohorts with a total of 13,116 individuals (discovery n = 8074; replication n = 5042 individuals). Besides the APOE locus, novel associations with two other well-established AD risk loci were observed; CR1 was shown a locus for A?42 and BIN1 for pTau. GMNC and C16orf95 were further identified as loci for pTau, of which the latter is novel. Clustering methods exploring the influence of all known AD risk loci on the CSF protein levels, revealed 4 biological categories suggesting multiple A?42 and pTau related biological pathways involved in the etiology of AD. In functional follow-up analyses, GMNC and C16orf95 both associated with lateral ventricular volume, implying an overlap in genetic etiology for tau levels and brain ventricular volume

Complementary pre-screening strategies to uncover hidden prodromal and mild Alzheimer's disease : Results from the MOPEAD project

The Models of Patient Engagement for Alzheimer's Disease (MOPEAD) project was conceived to explore innovative complementary strategies to uncover hidden prodromal and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia cases and to raise awareness both in the general public and among health professionals about the importance of early diagnosis. Four different strategies or RUNs were used: (a) a web-based (WB) prescreening tool, (2) an open house initiative (OHI), (3) a primary care-based protocol for early detection of cognitive decline (PC), and (4) a tertiary care-based pre-screening at diabetologist clinics (DC). A total of 1129 patients at high risk of having prodromal AD or dementia were identified of 2847 pre-screened individuals (39.7%). The corresponding proportion for the different initiatives were 36.8% (WB), 35.6% (OHI), 44.4% (PC), and 58.3% (DC). These four complementary pre-screening strategies were useful for identifying individuals at high risk of having prodromal or mild AD

Neuropsychiatric profiles and conversion to dementia in mild cognitive impairment, a latent class analysis

Altres ajuts: Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER)Altres ajuts: Generalitat de Catalunya. Programa CERCAAltres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CIBERSAM i CIBERNED)Altres ajuts: Fundació "La Caixa"Altres ajuts: Grífols SA (GR@ACE project)Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) have been recently addressed as risk factors of conversion to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementia types in patients diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Our aim was to determine profiles based on the prominent NPS in MCI patients and to explore the predictive value of these profiles on conversion to specific types of dementia. A total of 2137 MCI patients monitored in a memory clinic were included in the study. Four NPS profiles emerged (classes), which were defined by preeminent symptoms: Irritability, Apathy, Anxiety/Depression and Asymptomatic. Irritability and Apathy were predictors of conversion to dementia (HR = 1.43 and 1.56, respectively). Anxiety/depression class showed no risk effect of conversion when compared to Asymptomatic class. Irritability class appeared as the most discriminant neuropsychiatric condition to identify non-AD converters (i.e., frontotemporal dementia, vascular dementia, Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy Bodies). The findings revealed that consistent subgroups of MCI patients could be identified among comorbid basal NPS. The preeminent NPS showed to behave differentially on conversion to dementia, beyond AD. Therefore, NPS should be used as early diagnosis facilitators, and should also guide clinicians to detect patients with different illness trajectories in the progression of MCI

Plasma Aβ42/40 ratio alone or combined with FDG-PET can accurately predict amyloid-PET positivity: a cross-sectional analysis from the AB255 Study

Background: To facilitate population screening and clinical trials of disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, supportive biomarker information is necessary. This study was aimed to investigate the association of plasma amyloid-beta (Aβ) levels with the presence of pathological accumulation of Aβ in the brain measured by amyloid-PET. Both plasma Aβ42/40 ratio alone or combined with an FDG-PET-based biomarker of neurodegeneration were assessed as potential AD biomarkers. Methods: We included 39 cognitively normal subjects and 20 patients with mild cognitive impairment from the AB255 Study who had undergone PiB-PET scans. Total Aβ40 and Aβ42 levels in plasma (TP42/40) were quantified using ABtest kits. Subjects were dichotomized as Aβ-PET positive or negative, and the ability of TP42/40 to detect Aβ-PET positivity was assessed by logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic analyses. Combination of plasma Aβ biomarkers and FDG-PET was further assessed as an improvement for brain amyloidosis detection and diagnosis classification. Results: Eighteen (30.5%) subjects were Aβ-PET positive. TP42/40 ratio alone identified Aβ-PET status with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.881 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.779–0.982). Discriminating performance of TP42/40 to detect Aβ-PET-positive subjects yielded sensitivity and specificity values at Youden’s cutoff of 77.8% and 87.5%, respectively, with a positive predictive value of 0.732 and negative predictive value of 0.900. All these parameters improved after adjusting the model for significant covariates. Applying TP42/40 as the first screening tool in a sequential diagnostic work-up would reduce the number of Aβ-PET scans by 64%. Combination of both FDG-PET scores and plasma Aβ biomarkers was found to be the most accurate Aβ-PET predictor, with an AUC of 0.965 (95% CI = 0.913–0.100). Conclusions: Plasma TP42/40 ratio showed a relevant and significant potential as a screening tool to identify brain Aβ positivity in preclinical and prodromal stages of Alzheimer’s disease

Exploring APOE genotype effects on Alzheimer's disease risk and amyloid β burden in individuals with subjective cognitive decline: The FundacioACE Healthy Brain Initiative (FACEHBI) study baseline results

Introduction: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) has been proposed as a potential preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nevertheless, the genetic and biomarker profiles of SCD individuals remain mostly unexplored. Methods: We evaluated apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4's effect in the risk of presenting SCD, using the Fundacio ACE Healthy Brain Initiative (FACEHBI) SCD cohort and Spanish controls, and performed a meta-analysis addressing the same question. We assessed the relationship between APOE dosage and brain amyloid burden in the FACEHBI SCD and Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative cohorts. Results: Analysis of the FACEHBI cohort and the meta-analysis demonstrated SCD individuals presented higher allelic frequencies of APOE ε4 with respect to controls. APOE dosage explained 9% (FACEHBI cohort) and 11% (FACEHBI and Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative cohorts) of the variance of cerebral amyloid levels. Discussion: The FACEHBI sample presents APOE ε4 enrichment, suggesting that a pool of AD patients is nested in our sample. Cerebral amyloid levels are partially explained by the APOE allele dosage, suggesting that other genetic or epigenetic factors are involved in this AD endophenotype

Social Representation of Dementia : An Analysis of 5,792 Consecutive Cases Evaluated in a Memory Clinic

Background: Different interpretations of cognitive impairment and dementia due to differences in health structures, such as cultural differences could affect the diagnosis and treatment of the condition. it is reasonable to expect that the social and family impact of the disease and coping strategies will differ among societies. Objective: The general aim of this study is to understand the social representations of dementia, its associated practices, and the effects they imply. Methods: People diagnosed with clinical dementia and their families were assessed from 2005 to 2015 in the memory clinic of the Fundació ACE, Institut Català de Neurociències Aplicades in Barcelona, Spain. Results: 9,898 people were examined and 5,792 were diagnosed with dementia. For those with a caregiver (71%), the decision-making fell on the person with dementia in 16.2% of the cases; and for those without a caregiver, in 26.4% of the cases the family did not perceive the deficits as a disease, which led to multiple risk situations (74.6%). Conclusions: The recognition of dementia as part of aging is common among families. Consequently, risk situations may arise and diagnosis and access to treatment may be delayed. The incorporation of a social appraisal to the diagnostic process is a necessity to evaluate these situations

Long runs of homozygosity are associated with Alzheimer's disease

Altres ajuts: The Genome Research at Fundació ACE project (GR@ACE) is supported by Fundación bancaria "La Caixa," Grifols SA and Fundació ACE. L.M.R. is supported by Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (Grant PI-0001/2017).Long runs of homozygosity (ROH) are contiguous stretches of homozygous genotypes, which are a footprint of inbreeding and recessive inheritance. The presence of recessive loci is suggested for Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, their search has been poorly assessed to date. To investigate homozygosity in AD, here we performed a fine-scale ROH analysis using 10 independent cohorts of European ancestry (11,919 AD cases and 9181 controls.) We detected an increase of homozygosity in AD cases compared to controls [ β (CI 95%) = 0.070 (0.037-0.104); P = 3.91 × 10 −5 ; β (CI95%) = 0.043 (0.009-0.076); P = 0.013]. ROHs increasing the risk of AD (OR > 1) were significantly overrepresented compared to ROHs increasing protection (p < 2.20 × 10 −16). A significant ROH association with AD risk was detected upstream the HS3ST1 locus (chr4:11,189,482‒11,305,456), (β (CI 95%) = 1.09 (0.48 ‒ 1.48), p value = 9.03 × 10 −4), previously related to AD. Next, to search for recessive candidate variants in ROHs, we constructed a homozygosity map of inbred AD cases extracted from an outbred population and explored ROH regions in whole-exome sequencing data (N = 1449). We detected a candidate marker, rs117458494, mapped in the SPON1 locus, which has been previously associated with amyloid metabolism. Here, we provide a research framework to look for recessive variants in AD using outbred populations. Our results showed that AD cases have enriched homozygosity, suggesting that recessive effects may explain a proportion of AD heritability