Alzheimer's Disease Paid Clinical Trials in Texas

Difficulties with speech and language are the first and most notable symptoms of primary progressive aphasia (PPA). While there is evidence that demonstrates positive effects of speech-language treatment for individuals with PPA who only speak one language (monolinguals), there is a significant need for investigating the effects of treatment that is optimized for bilingual speakers with PPA. This stage 2 efficacy clinical trial seeks to establish the effects of culturally and linguistically tailored speech-language interventions administered to bilingual individuals with PPA. The overall aim of the intervention component of this study is to establish the relationships between the bilingual experience (e.g., how often each language is used, how "strong" each language is) and treatment response of bilinguals with PPA. Specifically, the investigators will evaluate the benefits of tailored speech-language intervention administered in both languages to bilingual individuals with PPA (60 individuals will be recruited). The investigators will conduct an assessment before treatment, after treatment and at two follow-ups (6 and 12-months post-treatment) in both languages. When possible, a structural scan of the brain (magnetic resonance image) will be collected before treatment in order to identify if brain regions implicated in bilingualism are associated with response to treatment. In addition to the intervention described herein, 30 bilingual individuals with PPA will be recruited to complete behavioral cognitive-linguistic testing and will not receive intervention. Results will provide important knowledge about the neural mechanisms of language re-learning and will address how specific characteristics of bilingualism influence cognitive reserve and linguistic resilience in PPA. Read Less

Inflammation occurs in many brain diseases including Alzheimer's disease. In Alzheimer's disease, amyloid starts accumulating decades before the start of forgetfulness. Basic scientists have reported that inflammation but not amyloid is linked to forgetfulness. When people pinch a finger, it gets swollen. Similar changes occur in brain from various causes. New medications are under development to help healing and prevent permanent damages in the brain. When people pinch a finger, they can check if the injury is healing or getting worse by watching. Investigators can watch inside of the brain using a special camera called positron emission tomography (PET). It is currently possible to watch inflammation in the brain by taking pictures of a molecule called translocator protein (TSPO). But the problem is that by imaging TSPO, investigators can catch changes in more than one kind of cells. The information is not specific to each cell type. Such vague information is not useful to monitor the effect of new medications for inflammation. This proposal attempts to develop a novel method to capture changes in each of two major players in inflammation, microglia and astrocytes. To do so, investigators will take selective pictures of one cell type by using a novel imaging agent for PET. Investigators will also take PET pictures of TSPO. Investigators will process these two kinds of PET pictures using advanced mathematical methods and extract specific information on microglia and astrocytes. Our novel method will be useful to monitor new therapies to treat inflammation in brain. Read Less

Apheleia-001 is a prescreener that aims to identify and characterize participants with reported cognitive impairment using demographic information, clinical history, brief cognitive assessments, and blood-based biomarkers to distinguish appropriate participants for referral to a therapeutic AD clinical trial. Read Less

The goal of this study is to is to focus on the genetic influences on Alzheimer's Disease (AD) risk. The investigators are looking for families and/or individuals (affected or unaffected) of any ethic background (African American, Caucasian, and Hispanics) with a family history of AD and willing to participate. Read Less

Nighttime agitation in persons with Alzheimer's disease causes patient suffering, distresses caregivers, and often results in prescriptions for harmful antipsychotics. Effective treatments are lacking because of limited knowledge of the etiology of nighttime agitation. The investigators propose a clinical trial to better elucidate whether a sleep disorder, restless legs syndrome, may be a mechanism for nighttime agitation, and if treatment with gabapentin enacarbil (Horizant®) reduces nighttime agitation, improves sleep, reduces restless legs syndrome behaviors, and reduces antipsychotic medications. Read Less