View clinical trials related to Neurodegenerative Diseases.
Filter by:This study is a prospective study with a mean of 7-year follow-up interval, aims to monitor the progression of α-synucleinopathy neurodegeneration by the evolution of prodromal markers and development of clinical disorders in patients with idiopathic REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (iRBD) and healthy controls.
This will be a Phase 1, open label study of the pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) of clonidine, an alpha-2 adrenergic (a2a) agonist, in healthy volunteers. The primary aim is to show that the drug regimen is safe and reasonably well tolerated. The secondary aim is to demonstrate that safety can be monitored with home health devices.
Elegible patients were included in the study and underwent treatment with a solution of citicoline 1% eye-drops, 0.2% high molecular weight hyaluronic acid and 0.01% benzalkonium chloride prior to surgery. The vitreous samples were taken at the beginning of the surgery and analyzed for qualitative/quantitative determination of vitreous concentration of citicoline and its metabolites by means of high performance liquid chromatography.
Background: Aging-related progressive neurological disorders include frontotemporal dementia, Lou Gehrig s disease, and Alzheimer s disease. Little is known about what causes these disorders. Brain inflammation may be involved. Researchers want to see if scans using radioactive drugs can show brain inflammation. Objective: To see if the drug [11C]ER176 can show inflammation in the brain in people with certain progressive neurological disorders compared to healthy adults. Also to find genes that might be associated with or cause these disorders. Eligibility: People ages 18 and older with an aging-related neurological disorder, and healthy adults Design: Participants will be screened with a medical history, physical exam, neurological exam, psychiatric history, and blood tests. Participants will have 2-5 visits for the first session. They will have 2 PET scans and 1 MRI scan. They may have 3 more sessions: 6 months to about 18 months later, 1 year after that, and about 30 months to 5 years after the first visit. There may be up to 20 total visits. For the scans, participants will lie on a bed that slides into the scanners. For the PET scans, a strap will fix their head in place. A radioactive drug will be injected through a catheter. A needle will guide a thin plastic tube into an arm vein. Additional catheters may be put in place to draw blood. Each PET will take 2 hours. The MRI will take 30 60 minutes. At each session, participants will have a brief interview, medical history, physical exam, blood and urine tests, heart tests, and memory and thinking tests. They may donate blood for DNA tests.
There is a long history of research into body fluid biomarkers in neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory diseases. However, only a few biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are being used in clinical practice. One of the most critical factors in biomarker research is the inadequate linkage of biological samples with data from medical records, environmental exposure, lifestyle information and other medically relevant information. In this context the biobanks are an invaluable resource for medical research and, in particular, for the identification of biomarkers. This project aims to enstablish a biobank for Multiple Sclerosis that allow to collect periodically, at each follow up, clinical data, tissues such as blood and cerebrospinal fluid and DNA, RNA, proteins, from patients afferent at the Centre for the Study and Cure of Multiple Sclerosis in Neurological Institute "Neuromed", Pozzilli, Isernia. The samples stored in this biobank are examined by quantization of a potential innovative biomarker focused on the formation of circulating mitochondrial DNA. Fragments of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are released outside the cell and they appear to persist in extracellular fluids as circulating, cell-free, mtDNA (ccf-mtDNA). This occurs during acute inflammation, which anticipates the neurodegenerative process. Thus, an increase in inflammatory cells in the affected regions is expected to add on mtDNA release into the CSF. Thus, ccf-mtDNA may represent a powerful biomarker for disease screening and prognosis at early stage, although its biological role may extend to generating the neurobiology of disease. Aims: 1. Identify a technique that allows to isolate, the mitochondrial DNA circulating from different biological tissues (Droplet Digital PCR, Real Time PCR). 2. Use different technologies to quantify the presence of circulating mitochondrial DNA 3. Use circulating mitochondrial DNA as a biomarker of neurodegenerative and / or neuroinflammatory pathologies. It is essential to understand the tissue specific origin of circulating mtDNA for both diagnostic and therapeutic considerations. . We believe that our current knowledge on cell free circulating mtDNA is in a rather exploratory phase with a potential for the future to rewrite the pathology of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality such as inflammatory conditions, autoimmune disorders, cancer, heart disease, stroke and injury.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and currently has no disease modifying treatments or simple accurate diagnostic tests. The goal of this project is to study how tau (a protein thought to cause AD) is made, transported and cleared in the human body. Better understanding of these processes may lead to improved understanding of AD, earlier diagnosis and a way to evaluate treatment.
Parkinson disease (PD) is a chronic degenerative disease characterized by a progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Its pathophysiological mechanisms are still partially unknown; a main role seems to be played by chronic neuroinflammation. A few reports have addressed the possible involvement of the inflammasome in PD, just describing the protective effect of P2X7 purinergic receptor (P2X7R) blockers in murine models of the disease and in microglial cells, where NLRP3 is activated by α-Synuclein, triggering a neuroinflammation that contributes to degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. It is still unclear whether, in addition to the increased brain expression and function of the nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat, pyrin domain containing type 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome platform, a systemic activation of such complex might participate in the pathogenesis of PD, which could be the role of the P2X7R in this scenario, and whether such patterns undergo any specific epigenetic regulation. The present study has been designed to address these issues.
This protocol seeks to assist biorepositories/biobanks in distributing their stored specimens and data to researchers that will actually utilize them to advance medicine and technology.
This prospective study aims: 1. to compare cognitive performance in different clinical groups of participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild dementia [Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI) and Fronto-temporal Dementia (FTD)] to determine whether scores reveal differential profiles between the groups, 2. to demonstrate differences in imaging markers between different dementia syndromes and healthy volunteers using ultra high-field MRI at 7T.
Mindfulness Based Health Care (MBHC) includes meditation techniques to help caregivers of Alzheimer patients to be made more aware of their experience in the present moment. Half of the caregivers will learn the practice of mindfulness meditation once a week through 8 classes, and the other half will not receive any therapy. The primary purpose of this study is to explore the effects of this mindfulness program for caregivers on the neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer patients, as well as on anxiety and depression symptoms in their caregivers. Secondarily, to examine the effect of this program on cognitive function, daily activity living and quality of life in Alzheimer patients, as well as on the burden of caregiving, quality of life, psychological well-being, occupational balance, executive function and self-compassion in their caregivers.