Healthy Clinical Trials in Boston, MA

Background: During the first few decades of life, the brain changes dramatically in shape and function. Sleep lets researchers measure these changes. Researchers want to create a database of sleep and neurodevelopmental data in a group of infants and children to learn more. Objective: To address a knowledge and data gap in the field of sleep and neurodevelopment in infants and children. Eligibility: Children ages 6 months to 76 months who may or may not be at risk for neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. Also, children ages 6 months to 8 years who have a referral for a sleep study. Design: Participants will have neurodevelopmental testing. They will have a medical, psychiatric, and family history. They will have a physical and neurological exam. They will be interviewed and complete surveys. They will give a cheek swab and/or blood sample. Some participants will have 1 study visit that lasts 2 days. Other participants will have up to 4 study visits. Each visit will last 2 days. Visits occur every 8 months to 1 year, for a total participation time of 2 years. Participants will have a 20-minute daytime electroencephalogram (EEG), if possible. This EEG session will be used to calibrate the machine for the overnight study. Participants will take part in an inpatient overnight sleep study. Electrodes will be placed on the participants. For young children, parents will help place the EEG leads. Other sensors may also be placed. A gauze cap will be placed on participants head to protect the leads and keep the participants from moving them. 'Lights out' will occur as close to participants bedtime as possible. Read Less

We are doing this research to learn how healthy younger and older adults use two forms of vitamin B3-called nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) and nicotinamide (NAM)-to make NAD+. NAD+ is a natural substance that cells need for energy and other important processes. Our goal is to find out how these NAD precursors are absorbed and metabolized and how they raise NAD+ in different tissues. Who can join? Healthy adults men and women aged 18 to 40 (younger group) or 65 and older (older group) Participants with a body mass index ranging between 19 and 35 No major health issues like diabetes or severe kidney disease What will happen? Participants will take labeled or unlabeled NMN or NAM by mouth every day for 14 days. Researchers will collect blood, urine, and stool samples. Researchers also do a small muscle biopsy (under local numbing) twice to check how these NAD precursors raise NAD+ in muscle. Why is this important? NAD+ levels may drop as people age, and this drop could affect overall health and energy in cells. A better understanding of how NMN and NAM are metabolized in the body to raise NAD+ levels in both younger and older adults may help us optimize dosing and strategies for raising NAD in older people. Possible benefits and risks: Participants may not get any direct health benefit from this study; the main goal is to gather new knowledge. NMN and NAM appear safe in the doses used. A muscle biopsy may cause soreness or bruising. Researchers will monitor participants closely for any side effects throughout the study. Read Less

In this research study we want to learn more about the effects of non-invasive brain stimulation on motivation, memory, and brain-network function in cognitively unimpaired older adults and individuals with preclinical Alzheimer's disease. This study will use a form of non-invasive brain stimulation called repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS). rTMS will slightly alter activity in an area of your brain that controls cognition. Changes resulting from this stimulation will be measured with behavioral tests, as well as by taking brain images with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Participants will come in for one baseline visit followed by 10 days of daily rTMS study visits (Monday through Friday) and an evaluation visit. Then, there will be a 2-week break. After this break, they will return for another baseline visit, an additional 10 days of rTMS, and a final evaluation visit. Read Less

This is a cluster randomized controlled trial of 30 food pantries affiliated with the Greater Boston Food Bank to test the use of behavioral economics (BE) tools to encourage food pantries to implement the Supporting Wellness at Pantries (SWAP) program, with the goal of fostering accurate use of SWAP traffic light labels on pantry shelves and increasing the healthfulness of foods chosen by pantry clients. Primary outcomes will be assessed at 6 and 12 months to compare the implementation and effectiveness of the SWAP program in the intervention vs. control pantries. Read Less

The goal of this clinical study is to evaluate safety of Xenon gas inhalation in healthy volunteers. This first phase safety clinical study is part of evaluation of the xenon gas inhalation as a therapy for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease. The investigators will administer xenon gas in low concentration to people via anesthetic machine, observe participants for sedation and any unexpected side effects, collect blood at each visit and measure the vital signs. There are four treatment groups in the study, which correspond with the duration of xenon gas treatment. Individual participation will last approximately 14 days over five visits: screening visit accompanied by the electrocardiogram, blood, and urine test; treatment visit for xenon gas inhalation treatment; and three follow up visits. Read Less

The goal is to look for qualitative differences in visual search behavior when one search is performed many times in a row compared to when multiple search tasks are intermixed. Four search tasks are tested. In the Mixed condition, the four tasks are randomly changed from trial to trial. In the Blocked condition, each task is run as a block of 100 trials. Read Less

The goal is to look for qualitative differences in visual search behavior when one search is performed many times in a row compared to when multiple search tasks are intermixed. Four search tasks are tested. The target is the same in every task but the types of distractors change from task to task. In this version, observers get some degree of choice in what they are searching. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of a single intramuscular injection of different formulations of a hexavalent influenza messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine composed of differing dose levels of trivalent (TIV) mRNA hemagglutinin (HA) in combination with TIV mRNA-neuraminidase (NA) compared to an active control ((Fluzone standard-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccine (QIV-SD) or Fluzone high-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccine (QIV-HD) in adults 50 years of age and older. Read Less

African American (AA) adults have a greater prevalence of developing cardiovascular and renal disease (CVRD) than White (W) adults. Elevated sympathetic nervous system activity is associated with increased incidence of CVRD. Physical exertion, such as exercise, acutely increases sympathetic nervous system activity directed towards the kidneys, resulting in renal vasoconstriction and reduced renal blood flow (RBF). However, the acute renal vasoconstrictor response to any sympathetic nervous system activation has not been investigated to date in AA adults. During sympathetic nervous system activation such as exercise, sympathetic outflow to the kidneys in AA adults might be exaggerated, contributing to greater renal vasoconstriction and a larger reduction in RBF. Over time, this exaggerated neurovascular response to sympathetic activation could have a negative cumulative effect on the kidneys, which could be a contributing factor to the greater incidence of CVRD in this population. Therefore, this study aims to examine the renal vasoconstrictor response to sympathetic stressors in healthy AA adults prior to development of CVRD to test the hypotheses that the renal vasoconstrictor response to acute dynamic exercise, as well as a cold pressor and mental stress tests, is exaggerated in healthy young AA compared to W adults. To test these hypotheses, the investigators will measure RBF and blood pressure at rest and during cycling exercise and a cold pressor and mental stress tests to calculate renal vascular resistance responses to these acute interventions. Using the highly innovative approach of Doppler ultrasound to measure RBF during exercise and non-exercise sympathetic stressors non-invasively and with high temporal resolution will enable us to assess the renal vasoconstrictor response to sympathetic stressors in healthy AA adults prior to development of CVRD, so the underlying integrative physiological responses to sympathetic activation in AA adults can be understood. Findings from this study in this understudied yet clinically significant area will contribute to the ultimate goal of creating and implementing treatment strategies to reduce the risk of developing CVRD in AA adults. Read Less

Brief Summary: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a significant and costly public health problem that affects one-third of the U.S. population in their lifetime. Specifically, unhealthy alcohol use is common among persons living with HIV (PLWH) and increases the risk of developing negative outcomes. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has shown increasing life expectancy and decreased HIV-related deaths, leading to a growing older adult HIV population. Yet, HIV accelerates the aging process and increases the risk for numerous chronic health conditions that compromise physical and mental health functioning and quality of life. Thus, PLWH continue to have shorter life expectancies relative to the general population and these multimorbidities explain this increased risk. In this context, unhealthy alcohol use among PLWH can further increase the risk for negative outcomes. Physical activity (PA) interventions can be used as an effective way to address unhealthy alcohol use among PLWH. Previous PA interventions have shown low generalizability and high loss to follow-up. Therefore, an intervention that is home-based, including lifestyle physical activity (LPA) with mobile health-delivered components is designed following the physical activity (PA) paradigm. Participants in this randomized controlled trial will be assigned to one of two study arms -- either the LPA or Fitbit Only intervention - both lasting 12-weeks. Both study arms will utilize a Fitbit to track daily step counts. In addition to utilizing a Fitbit, the LPA arm will receive 7 LPA sessions with a trained interventionist to assist in adding LPA to the participant's routine. The Fitbit only arm will receive only brief check-in phone calls and only related to assisting with any Fitbit functioning issues. Follow-up assessments will take place at 3 and 6 months. Read Less

This is a single center, open label (i.e. participants and study staff will not be masked to the intervention) single ascending dose study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmaokinetics and pharmacodynamics of MIB-725 in community dwelling, healthy adults. Up to 4 successive groups (cohorts) of 8 subjects each will be enrolled in this trial. This study will determine the safety and tolerability of orally administered single ascending (increasing) doses (100, 200, 400, and 800 mg) of MIB-725 in healthy adults. The safety will be assessed by evaluating physical examination that includes an external eye examination, vital signs, adverse events, and changes in blood counts, EKG, urinalysis, coagulation measures, and blood chemistries, including but not limited to blood glucose, electrolytes, creatinine, liver function tests, uric acid, and creatine kinase. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, pH and food effect, and preliminary efficacy of BMS-986470 in healthy volunteers and participants with sickle cell disease. Read Less