Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may develop 10-15 years before onset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Early intervention may serve to halt or delay disease progression. Thus, there is a need to investigate early cognitive and biological markers to detect and track disease progression.
In DDI, patients are recruited and followed at all university hospitals, and included in ongoing research projects and clinical trials. DDI has a common infrastructure, including customized searchable database (clinical and cognitive data, multimodal imaging, genetics, proteomics) located at TSD/UiO.
For the first time, DDI brings together trans-national advanced neuroscientific communities combining technology (MRI, PIB-PET), know-how (neurochemistry, post-processing) and advanced equipment as well as patient cohorts, to ultimately combat incipient c ognitive impairment and dementia.
The project benefits also from texisting NORNI-project, and most importantly from the combined analysis and harmonization of existing large national patient- and control cohorts from Helse Sør-Øst ("MCI-GO"), HelseVest ("DemVest") and HelseMidt ("Trønderbrain"), and starting up a similar cohort in Helse Nord. Major knowledge gains will be made already from cross-cohort analysis of existing data.
Building on national, EU (JPND) Scandinavian and highly advanced international networks for collaboration, we will fruitfully integrate Alzheimer (AD) and Parkinson/Diffuse Lewy Body (PD/DLB) research by contrasting major cognitive disease trajectories to normal aging (NA).
AD and PD/DLB are major dementia diseases (60-80% of all cases). Years and decades of pre-clinical and predementia cognitive impairment and ultimately extremely challenging due to extensive behavioral, emotional and cognitive disturbance and rapidly increasing high costs to society.
To prevent dementia, a focus-shift to predementia stages and knowledge of early mechanisms putatively amenable to prevention and intervention are needed. Dementia patients have suffered neuronal degeneration, lost neurons and neural networks can not be replaced. So me pathophysiological processes involved have been described, but major knowledge gaps persist.
Incipient disease will be mapped in NA chorts, and putative incipient disease manifestations and predictors will be mapped accross neurochemistry, imaging modalities and genetics to gain insight in initial disease mechanisms, trajectories.
Build on regional established running projects, international networks, trans-regional advanced competence DDI has a high success-likelyhood.
Contact