Neuroimaging Project Boosts Research Seeking Interventions for Alzheimer's Disease

The largest public-private partnership in Alzheimer's disease research has been renewed for an additional five years.

The Foundation for the [US] National Institutes of Health (FNIH; Bethesda, MD, USA) announced that the National Institutes of Health's Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) has been expanded. The goal of the study expansion, called ADNI2, is to gain new insights into the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease, with the aim of improving clinical trial design and aiding drug development. ADNI2 will seek to identify and track early changes in the brain before the onset of symptoms of Alzheimer's disease by using imaging methods and biomarker measures in blood and cerebrospinal fluid.

"The study's chief goal is to identify biomarkers that recognize Alzheimer's disease at an early stage and monitor progression and response to treatment," noted Dr. Michael Weiner, ADNI principal investigator; professor of medicine, radiology, psychiatry, and neurology, University of California, San Francisco (USA); and director, Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Disease, San Francisco Veteran's Administration Medical Center.

"This grant renewal will fund enrollment and continued measurement of more than 1,000 subjects including healthy elders, people with mild cognitive impairment, and patients with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. The continuation of ADNI will accelerate the development of diagnostic methods and clinical treatment trials, helping to develop effective therapies to prevent Alzheimer's disease," concluded Dr. Weiner.

Some US$62 million is expected to support ADNI2 over five years. The Foundation for NIH has raised more than $22 million in private sector funding for the project. The National Institutes of Health anticipates providing $40 million over the course of ADNI2; $8 million was awarded to the project in FY 2010, with a further $32 million committed. Private sector funding comes from diverse sources, including pharmaceutical, imaging, and clinical trial management companies; nonprofit organizations; and donations from individuals. Combined with the $27 million raised for ADNI1, nearly $50 million has been raised to date by the Foundation for NIH from the private sector toward these projects.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the NIH, directs the federal government's Alzheimer's disease research efforts and leads the ADNI study. "Extending ADNI promises to significantly advance how we track Alzheimer's disease and test potential treatments," said NIA director Dr. Richard J. Hodes. "Enabling us to see in the living brain and identifying biomarkers that signal brain changes is revolutionizing the way we study Alzheimer's. This partnership is critical to the effort to combat Alzheimer's disease."

"The ambitious path to finding a cure for this dreaded disease is contingent on the proper pace of funding and commitment by the private sector to help to support this worthy endeavor, as corporate sponsors or individual contributors. Alzheimer's disease knows no boundaries and it doesn't discriminate," according to Dr. Scott Campbell, Foundation for NIH executive director and CEO. "The Foundation for NIH is pleased to facilitate the scientific and financial commitment of these diverse partners in ADNI and now ADNI2."

This expansion of ADNI allows for the recruitment of 550 new study participants and enables researchers to continue following people recruited during earlier phases of the study. As budgets tighten in a world where clinical trials are the lifeline to the future, ADNI2 offers a new model for public-private cooperation and collaboration in a proven, precompetitive environment. It includes idea and data sharing not possible in competitive environments. Since ADNI's launch in 2004, data have been posted to a publicly accessible database available to qualified researchers worldwide. More than 1,700 researchers have signed up for access to the ADNI database. The public sharing of data is fostering unprecedented collaborations among academics, government, and industry researchers, resulting in over 170 published papers. ADNI data are also being used in numerous clinical trial and modeling efforts.

Established by the United States Congress to support the mission of the NIH--improving health through scientific discovery in the search for cures--the Foundation for NIH is a leader in identifying and addressing complex scientific and health issues. The foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization that raises private-sector funds for a broad portfolio of unique programs that complement and enhance NIH priorities and activities.

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