Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has become the first site in Europe to join a Trontinemab clinical trial for people at high risk of developing Alzheimer's. The move puts Surrey and north east Hampshire at the front of a study that is looking at treatment before symptoms begin.
The trial is recruiting 1,600 healthy adults aged 55 to 80 internationally, and the trust will recruit participants from anywhere in the UK. Ramin Nilforooshan, the consultant psychiatrist and chief investigator, said the research had focused “for decades” on treating Alzheimer's after symptoms appeared and now “addresses a different question, whether we can act earlier, before symptoms begin”.
Ramin Nilforooshan and Trontinemab
Nilforooshan also said: “We are very excited for the potential to help millions of people affected by Alzheimer's disease.” The trust said it is the third site worldwide to offer Trontinemab, which attacks beta amyloid that builds up in the spaces between brain cells in Alzheimer's disease.
That makes this study different from the more familiar pattern of testing treatment after memory and thinking problems have started. Here, researchers are looking for healthy adults before symptoms appear, which is why the trial is using blood tests to identify the people most likely to benefit.
UK recruitment through Surrey
The NHS says Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia and accounts for 60% to 80% of dementia cases in the country. An Alzheimer's Society report estimates 982,000 people are living with dementia in the UK, which is the scale that gives this trial its public significance.
For adults in the UK who believe they may fit the age range, the practical next step is to look for recruitment through the Surrey and north east Hampshire trust. The trial is already open to participants, and the site now carries Europe's first role in a study that is trying to stop Alzheimer's before symptoms start.
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