Researchers at Brown University-affiliated Butler Hospital, including BIBS faculty members Stephen Salloway and Jessica Alber have enrolled one of the initial participants in an international Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prevention study. The study is investigating whether an oral medication, known as CNP520, can slow the build-up of amyloid plaques in the brain and delay cognitive decline in individuals at risk for the disease. Amyloid build-up is one of the major causes of AD and can begin up to two decades before the onset of the clinical symptoms. The new study is a clinical trial sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceuticals in collaboration with Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and Amgen. The trial is designed for cognitively healthy adults, aged 60 to 75 years old, who carry at least one copy of the APOE4 gene and have a build-up of cerebral amyloid in the brain, both risk markers for Alzheimer’s.

You can find coverage of this new trial in the Providence Journal.