THE EUROPEAN PREVENTION OF ALZHEIMER’S DEMENTIA (EPAD) LONGITUDINAL COHORT STUDY: BASELINE DATA RELEASE V500.0

Background: The European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia (EPAD) Programme is a pan-European project whose objective is to deliver a platform, adaptive, Phase 2 proof of concept (PoC) trial for the secondary prevention of Alzheimer’s dementia. A component of this platform is the Longitudinal Cohort Study (LCS) which acts as a readiness cohort for the PoC Trial as well as generating data for disease modelling work in the preclinical and prodromal phases of Alzheimer’s dementia. Objectives: The first data wave has been collected, quality checked, released and now available for analysis to answer numerous research questions. Here we describe the results from key variables in the EPAD LCS with the objective of using these results to compliment analyses of these data in the future. Design: EPAD LCS is a cohort study whose primary objective is as a readiness cohort for the EPAD PoC Trial. As such recruitment is not capped at any particular number but will continue to facilitate delivery of the EPAD PoC Trial. Research Participants are seen annually (with an additional 6 month visit in the first year). Setting: The EPAD Trial Delivery Network comprises currently 21 centres across Europe. Participants: Research participants are included if they are over 50 years old and do not have a diagnosis of dementia. Measurements: All research participants undergo multiple assessments to fully characterise the biology of Alzheimer’s disease and relate this to risk factors (both fixed and modifiable) and biomarker expression of disease through brain imaging, fluid samples (CSF, blood, urine and saliva), cognitive performance, functional abilities and neuropsychiatric symptomatology. Results: V500.0 represents the first 500 research participants baselined into EPAD LCS. The mean age was 66.4 (SD=6.7) and 47.8% were male. The data was split for presentation into 4 groups: [1] CDR=0 and Amyloid + (preclinical AD), [2] CDR=0 and Amyloid –, [3] CDR=0.5 and Amyloid + (prodromal AD) and [4] CDR=0.5 and Amyloid -. Conclusions: The EPAD LCS is achieving its primary objective of trial readiness and the structured approach to data release as manifest by this first data release of V500.0 will assist researchers to describe and compare their findings as well as in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. It is anticipated given current recruitment rates that V1500.0 data release will take place in Autumn 2019. V500.1 (when the 1 year follow up is completed on the V500.0 (sub)cohort will be in Autumn 2019 also.

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European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia Longitudinal Cohort Study (EPAD LCS): study protocol

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2017-021017 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. e021017 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Alina Solomon ◽

Miia Kivipelto ◽

José Luis Molinuevo ◽

Brian Tom ◽

Craig W Ritchie

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Cohort Study ◽

Alzheimer’S Dementia ◽

Longitudinal Cohort Study ◽

Community Research ◽

Data Set ◽

Alzheimer's Dementia ◽

Longitudinal Cohort ◽

Research Participants

IntroductionThe European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia (EPAD) project is funded initially by the Innovative Medicines Initiative and has been established to overcome the major hurdles hampering drug development for secondary prevention of Alzheimer’s dementia, by conducting the EPAD Longitudinal Cohort Study (LCS) in alignment with the Bayesian adaptive designed EPAD Proof-of-Concept (PoC) trial.Methods and analysisEPAD LCS is an ongoing prospective, multicentre, pan-European longitudinal cohort study. Participants are recruited mainly from existing parent cohorts across Europe to form a ‘probability-spectrum’ population covering the entire continuum of anticipated probability for Alzheimer’s dementia development. The primary objective of the EPAD LCS is to be a readiness cohort for the EPAD PoC trial though a second major objective is to generate a comprehensive and large data set for disease modelling of preclinical and prodromal Alzheimer’s disease. This characterisation of cognitive, biomarker and risk factor (genetic and environmental) status of research participants over time will provide the necessary well-phenotyped population for developing accurate longitudinal models for Alzheimer’s disease covering the entire disease course and concurrently create a pool of highly characterised individuals for the EPAD PoC trial.Ethics and disseminationThe study has received the relevant approvals from numerous Institutional Review Boards across Europe. Findings will be disseminated to several target audiences, including the scientific community, research participants, patient community, general public, industry, regulatory authorities and policy-makers. Regular and coordinated releases of EPAD LCS data will be made available for analysis to help researchers improve their understanding of early Alzheimer’s disease stages and facilitate collaborations.Trial registration numberNCT02804789.

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