Aging Clinical Trials

Vascular and skeletal muscle function decline with age and are associated with decreased nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability. Dietary nitrate supplementation in the form of beet root juice increases NO bioavailability and improves exercise tolerance in younger adults, yet its effects on fatigability in older adults are largely unknown. The proposed research will investigate the impact of increased NO bioavailability on vascular function, skeletal muscle bioenergetics, and fatigability in older (≥65 yrs) men and women. Read Less

Competitive sport increases risk for musculoskeletal injury (e.g., traumatic knee injury) and may position former athletes for early onset of chronic diseases, chronic pain, poor health-related quality of life, and disability. Quantifying function in former athletes with and without a prior injury and non-athlete controls is critical to understanding long-term health trajectories in athletes and informing potential interventional studies. One modifiable factor that may be associated with long-term health in athletes is physical activity patterns. The purpose of this study is to evaluate strength, function, physical activity, dietary patterns, and cardiometabolic health among current and former competitive athletes and in nonathlete controls to evaluate the impact of prior knee injury and sedentary behavior as two potential determinants of later poor health and reduced function. Read Less

Senior Companion Programs (SCP) facilitate partnerships between community volunteers and local homebound seniors. Seniors served by the SCP will be provided with a companion who will conduct weekly visits with them, help with meal preparation or deliveries, provide transportation, assist with simple housekeeping, and socialize with the client amongst other tasks. These services are directed towards helping the senior client continue living independently in their own home instead of moving into an assisted living or nursing home. The SCP model is being evaluated to determine the impact of the services on the client's overall well-being and independent living status. Read Less

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of incentives on clinical trial participation. 1) characterize key stakeholders' views on and assessment of incentives, 2) reach consensus among stakeholders on the factors to be considered when choosing incentives and their relative importance, 3) pilot test using vignettes for incentive decision making. We hypothesize that potential study participants make trade-offs regarding the characteristics of a research study when deciding whether to volunteer. This amendment is to document IRB reliance between UCR and USF. Read Less

Exercise tolerance decreases with age and a sedentary lifestyle. Muscle critical power (CP), is a sensitive measure of exercise tolerance that is more even more relevant to and predictive of endurance performance than VO2max. While recent evidence indicates that CP and muscle function decrease with aging, the cause of this decrease in CP and the best way to mitigate the decrease in CP are unknown. This study will: Measure knee extensor CP in young and old individuals and determine the extent to which changes in muscle oxygen delivery (e.g. resistance artery function, maximum exercise blood flow), muscle mass and composition (e.g. whole-muscle size, muscle fiber cross-sectional area) and mitochondrial oxygen consumption (e.g. maximal coupled respiration of permeabilized fibers biopsied from the knee extensors) contribute to the decrease in CP with age. Examine the effectiveness of two different therapies (1. High Intensity Interval Training, HIIT and 2. Muscle Heat Therapy) at improving muscle function and critical power in young and older adults. Examine the impact of muscle disuse (2 weeks of leg immobilization), a potential contributor to the decrease in muscle function with aging, on muscle function and critical power and determine if heat therapy is an effective means of minimizing the impact of disuse on muscle function and critical power. Read Less

The Atlas of Retinal Imaging in Alzheimer's (ARIAS) study is a 5-year study examining the natural history of retinal imaging biomarkers associated with disease risk, disease burden, and disease progression in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The objective of this project is to create a 'gold standard' reference database of structural anatomic and functional imaging of the retina, in order to enable the identification and development of both sensitive and reliable markers of AD risk and/or progression. Our ultimate goal is to develop a new screening protocol that identifies changes related to AD 10-20 years before AD is clinically visible. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of non-invasive brain stimulation on memory in cognitively unimpaired older adults and in patients amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) due to Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study will use repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) to stimulate nodes of the Default Mode Network (DMN)- which is thought to support episodic memory and to be affected by Alzheimer's pathology. We will use functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI) to assess changes in functional network architecture following the stimulation. We will also assess putative cognitive improvements resulting from the stimulation by in-depth memory testing. Read Less

The Georgetown University Memory Disorders Program, part of the Department of Neurology, is conducting pilot studies of the feasibility of various diagnostic tests for Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment and other neurodegenerative diseases. Further, this study is assessing longitudinal changes in biological, lifestyle, and cognitive assessment collection. The primary goal of this study is to examine the feasibility of biochemical assays, genetic testing, and cognitive and lifestyle assessments in the ante-mortem diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment and other neurodegenerative diseases. This research involves genetic and cognitive status testing but the findings will not be shared with research subjects. This will be accomplished ex vivo using blood, and/or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens from patients with a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, or other neurodegenerative diseases and from normal controls. Read Less