The 2025 CTAD China Advanced Workshop and Course in AD Clinical Trials represented a pivotal milestone in advancing clinical research capacity for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) across China. Co- organized by the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) organization and the China Brain Health Initiative Expert Committee, this event brought together leading investigators from throughout China, alongside distinguished experts from Europe, the United States, and the industry sector. Its core objective was to deliver a high-level platform for exchanging insights on the latest breakthroughs in AD clinical research, cutting-edge biomarkers, innovative therapeutic strategies, and the best practices for multicenter collaboration.
Globally, the scientific and clinical challenges posed by AD continues to escalate. Projections indicate that the worldwide prevalence of dementia will surge to 139 million by 2050, and China shoulders a considerable portion of this global burden. The far-reaching impacts of this trend, spanning medical system, societal well-being, and economic stability, underscore an urgent need for innovative solutions in prevention, early detection, and disease-modifying treatments. The CTAD China initiative directly addresses these pressing challenges by integrating rigorous scientific standards, global collaborative networks, and a strategic focus on building sustainable clinical trial infrastructure.
Highlights from the 2025 Program
The abstracts presented in this special section of The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease (JPAD) reflect a field that is advancing rapidly on multiple fronts.
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Advances in disease-modifying therapies: Phase 3 trials, including TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 3 (donanemab) and TRAILRUNNER-ALZ 3 (remternetug), provide compelling evidence that intervening in the preclinical and prodromal stages of AD can meaningfully slow clinical progression. Moreover, data from long-term extension studies of these therapies further support the sustained clinical benefit of amyloid-targeted therapies.
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Real-world implementation: The first multicenter Chinese experience with lecanemab demonstrates that integration of multidisciplinary teams, confirming via amyloid/tau PET imaging, and structured monitoring for Amyloid-Related Imaging Abnormalities (ARIA) is feasible and safe, laying a critical foundation for the broader adoption of disease-modifying treatments in real-world clinical practice.
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Emerging therapeutic approaches: Early-phase studies highlight the promising potential of innovative therapeutic strategies for AD, including bispecific antibodies engineered for enhanced blood–brain barrier penetration (trontinemab, Brainshuttle™ platform) and small-molecule modulators targeting synaptic plasticity (e.g., Rac1 inhibitors). These novel approaches represent a meaningful expansion of the AD therapeutic armamentarium, moving beyond the traditional focus on amyloid pathways.
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Precision medicine through biomarkers: Plasma biomarkers (e.g. p-tau217, GFAP, NfL), when compared with amyloid and tau imaging, are enabling earlier and less invasive diagnosis of AD, as well as more precise stratification of clinical trial participants. Notably, several studies presented at this event (e.g. Clear-AD) demonstrate the potential of these integrated biomarkers to serve as surrogate endpoints, ultimately paving the way for more efficient, targeted and cost-effective AD clinical trials.
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Novel insights into disease mechanisms: Investigations into glymphatic system dysfunction, neuroinflammation, and microglial activation are shedding new light on the pathophysiological mechanisms of AD and providing fresh perspectives on treatment response variability. By integrating these mechanistic insights with real-world and clinical trial data, researchers can better guide the development of next-generation AD therapeutics, ones that target these understudied pathways to address unmet clinical needs.
Building Clinical Trial Infrastructure in China
A core objective of this workshop was to advance the CTAD China Clinical Trial Center Initiative, an effort designed to establish a nationally coordinated network of research sites. These sites would be equipped to conduct high-quality, biomarker-driven AD clinical trials that meet rigorous international standards.
To achieve this goal, the initiative encompasses key actions: harmonizing clinical trial protocols to ensure consistency across sites, developing Standard Operating Procedure to standardize biomarker testing and data analysis, providing targeted training for investigators to enhance expertise in AD research, and facilitating proactive dialogue with regulatory authorities. Together, these measures aim to accelerate the approval of novel AD therapies in China and expand patient access to these treatments.
Outlook
As the field moves toward an era of precision medicine, the integration of disease-modifying therapies with biomarker-guided prevention and early detection strategies will be essential to alleviating the individual, familial and societal burden of AD. The success of the 2025 CTAD China Workshop underscores the importance of sustained collaboration across academia, industry, government agencies, and patient advocacy organizations, partnerships that are foundational to achieving this goal.
On behalf of the organizing committee, I am pleased to present this special collection of abstracts, which showcase state-of-the-art research and clinical innovation in AD. These contributions not only reflect the rigor of global AD research but also embody the shared commitment of the international research community to advancing scientific discovery and, ultimately, improving outcomes for patients and families affected by this devastating disease.
We look forward to welcoming you back to Shanghai in September 2026, as we continue to build a robust and inclusive international platform for collaboration. Together, we will accelerate progress toward our shared vision: a world of healthy aging, free from the burden of Alzheimer’s disease.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Yong Shen: Writing – review & editing. Xiaochun Chen: Writing – review & editing. Jiong Shi: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Conceptualization.
Declaration of interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.