INDIVIDUAL DETERMINATION OF ORTHO AND NON-ORTHO SUBSTITUTED POLYCHLOROBIPHENYLS (PCBS) IN SEDIMENTS BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC PRE-SEPARATION AND GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY/ECD DETECTION

An analytical procedure for the individual determination of ortho and non-ortho PCB congeners in sediments, using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) preseparation and gas chromatography/ECD detection, is described. Gas chromatography/FTIR spectrometry (GC/FTIR) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were employed for individual congener identification and determination. Sample extraction, clean-up of extract and selective elution procedures were optimized by using reference certified marine sediment samples. Recovery and precision were typically 83% and 16% respectively at 2 ng/g of total PCB content. The proposed procedure, tested by analyzing real sediment samples, showed a reproducibility better than 20% at 13 ng/g PCB level

ADAMANT: a placebo-controlled randomized phase 2 study of AADvac1, an active immunotherapy against pathological tau in Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology is partly characterized by accumulation of aberrant forms of tau protein. Here we report the results of ADAMANT, a 24-month double-blinded, parallel-arm, randomized phase 2 multicenter placebo-controlled trial of AADvac1, an active peptide vaccine designed to target pathological tau in AD (EudraCT 2015-000630-30). Eleven doses of AADvac1 were administered to patients with mild AD dementia at 40 μg per dose over the course of the trial. The primary objective was to evaluate the safety and tolerability of long-term AADvac1 treatment. The secondary objectives were to evaluate immunogenicity and efficacy of AADvac1 treatment in slowing cognitive and functional decline. A total of 196 patients were randomized 3:2 between AADvac1 and placebo. AADvac1 was safe and well tolerated (AADvac1 n = 117, placebo n = 79; serious adverse events observed in 17.1% of AADvac1-treated individuals and 24.1% of placebo-treated individuals; adverse events observed in 84.6% of AADvac1-treated individuals and 81.0% of placebo-treated individuals). The vaccine induced high levels of IgG antibodies. No significant effects were found in cognitive and functional tests on the whole study sample (Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of the Boxes scale adjusted mean point difference −0.360 (95% CI −1.306, 0.589)), custom cognitive battery adjusted mean z-score difference of 0.0008 (95% CI −0.169, 0.172). We also present results from exploratory and post hoc analyses looking at relevant biomarkers and clinical outcomes in specific subgroups. Our results show that AADvac1 is safe and immunogenic, but larger stratified studies are needed to better evaluate its potential clinical efficacy and impact on disease biomarkers