NIH Radio
Alzheimer’s Disease Research Summit
Brief Description:
The NIH hosted an Alzheimer's disease summit to kick-off the National Alzheimer's Act with the goal of finding a cure by 2025.
Transcript:
Kern: The NIH has recently held the “Alzheimer's Disease Research Summit 2012: Path to Treatment and Prevention.” Some 500 researchers, clinicians and members of the broader Alzheimer's community contributed. Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the NIHs National Institute of Aging stresses the importance of the summit.
Hodes: This is a time when there is great national and global interest and concern about Alzheimer's disease. This also is a time in which scientific opportunities have been explosive. The time is therefore a critical one which we can bring together experts nationally and internationally to help us identify what the priorities are, what areas of research are going to be most important, most likely to lead as quickly as we can to the cures and preventions that we all are striving toward.
Kern: Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia among older people. Dementia is a brain disorder that seriously affects a person's ability to carry out daily activities. Dr. Neil Buckholtz, also with the National Institute of Aging here at NIH says the disease is a major public health problem.
Buckholtz: It affects obviously the people who have the disease itself but it also affects the family members. It's a very devastating disease. The course of the disease takes a number of years and it's a major stress both for the individual who has Alzheimer's disease as well as for the family members.
Kern: Estimates vary, but experts suggest that as many as 5.1 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease. Because the risk of Alzheimer's disease increases with age, this number is likely to rise significantly as the U.S. population continues to age. Despite its high prevalence, no new treatments have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration since the early 2000s. Dr. Ronald Petersen a participant at the summit from the Mayo Clinic, says the incidence of Alzheimer's disease is rising.
Petersen: We're at the point in this country and actually around the world right now where Alzheimer's disease is in fact a crisis.
Kern: The recent summit served as the kick-off to the National Alzheimer's Project Act, the first national plan to address Alzheimer's disease research. The plan sets forth specific goals, including the development of effective prevention and treatment approaches for Alzheimer's and related dementias by 2025. Dr. Steven DeKosky from the University of Virginia School of Medicine attended the summit and explains its role in shaping the future of Alzheimer's disease research.
DeKosky: I think there are two reasons that the meeting is extraordinarily important. The first is that the group has been charged with trying to give the best thoughts about what future research should be that the NIH decides to encourage and fund. The second is that because there is such a wide range of researchers here from neurobehavioral experts to epidemiologists to biochemists to clinical researchers, we're trying to get the word from everyone about what aspects of their areas of research are important enough to include in the plan with recommendations to the head of NIH, to the head of NIA, and to the government.
Kern: One recurring theme of the meeting was the need to encourage more public participation in Alzheimer's disease research. Dr. DeKosky explains how families of Alzheimer's patients can get involved.
DeKosky: Families are the key to this because we will not conquer this disease without clinical trials. We will not do clinical trials in patients with Alzheimer's disease unless their families are willing to help or willing to make the observations they need to make to come to the clinic when they have follow-up appointments or come in for a scan or a blood test. So it isn't as if the families can sit back and the labs can solve this problem. They absolutely will not. It will take participation of families who have responded wonderfully well in many centers and it's up to us to give them more opportunities to be able to participate in research.
Kern: For more information about Alzheimer's disease, research and clinical trials in Alzheimer's disease, and the recent summit, visit www.nia.nih.gov. For NIH Radio, this is Margot Kern — NIH ... Turning Discovery Into Health.
About This Audio Report
Date: 6/14/2012
Reporter: Margot Kern
Sound Bite: Dr. Richard Hodes, Dr. Neil Buckholtz, Dr. Ronald Petersen, Dr. Steven DeKosky
Topic: Alzheimer's disease, Alzheimer's, dementia, research, Alzheimer's disease research, brain disorder, Alzheimer's Disease Research Summit
Institute: NIA
Additional Info: Alzheimer's Disease Research Summit 2012
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