Clinical Core

Washington University, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

REVISED ABSTRACT: Clinical Core Project Summary – 2P30AG066444-06 (5152) Core B: Clinical recruits and longitudinally assesses all participants in the Knight ADRC Cohort. It uses well-established study partner-based clinical and cognitive instruments (including the Uniform Data Set) at entry and annually thereafter to obtain clinical, cognitive, behavioral, and neurological data to carefully characterize each participant as to the presence or absence of dementia and, when present, its severity and etiology. The Core has successfully functioned to serve the needs of cutting-edge research projects of the Knight ADRC and its affiliated grants since its inception in 1985 and will continue to do so in the next 5-year funding period. The Core’s Specific Aims in the proposed funding period are: 1. Maintain an active cohort of participants (N≈300), carefully characterized as to the presence or absence of symptomatic AD, to support longitudinal studies of the clinical, cognitive, and biomedical correlates of symptomatic AD in comparison with cognitively unimpaired aging and to mark the transition of participants with preclinical AD to cognitive impairment. 2. Ensure that the cohort reflects the local population in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. 3. Collect data, images (MRI, amyloid PET, and tau PET), and biospecimens (DNA, RNA, CSF, plasma, dermal fibroblasts, and iPSCs) from participants as appropriate. 4. Solicit voluntary brain autopsy from all participants. 5. In conjunction with the Research Education Component, use Core resources to train early-stage investigators in dementia assessment, the heterogeneity of ADRD, and clinicopathological correlations that explore the multifactorial nature of AD. 6. Continue close interactions with the Knight ADRC Clinical Trials Unit and with the faculty outpatient practice, the Memory Diagnostic Center, to successfully bring disease-modifying therapies to participants and patients and to continue to utilize patient electronic medical records to provide insight into optimal patient care. 7. Engage participants in establishing research priorities as embodied in our initiatives to return research results and to compensate participants and their study partners.