PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Craig W Ritchie
AU  - Karen Ritchie
TI  - The PREVENT study: a prospective cohort study to identify mid-life biomarkers of late-onset Alzheimer's disease
AID  - 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-001893
DP  - 2012 Jan 01
TA  - BMJ Open
PG  - e001893
VI  - 2
IP  - 6
4099  - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/6/e001893.short
4100  - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/6/e001893.full
SO  - BMJ Open2012 Jan 01; 2
AB  - Introduction Epidemiological studies indicate that significant decreases in the incidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) may be obtained by targeting multiple middle-age risk factors. However, as dementia is unlikely to be diagnosed for decades, short-term outcome measures are required. AD biomarker changes precede clinical symptoms by many years, but their sensitivity to mid-life change remains unknown. Methods and analysis PREVENT is a prospective cohort study examining biomarker status at mid-life in at least 150 individuals genetically at high, medium or low risk of late-onset AD. Participants are children of individuals with or without a diagnosed AD allocated to high, medium and low-risk groups according to parental clinical status and ApoE genotype. The biomarkers examined over 2 years are plasma and CSF Aβ42 amyloid, Tau and pTau, proinflammatory cytokines, acute-phase proteins, medial temporal-lobe atrophy, white matter lesion volume, cognitive performance related to transentorhinal and hippocampal functioning and hypothalamic−pituitary−adrenal and sympathetic axes regulation. Ethics and dissemination Detected pathologies are communicated to the participant's general practitioner with their permission. Risk status by genotype would not be revealed. The results of the study would be published in peer-reviewed journals and validated biomarkers used to construct a randomised controlled intervention study.