We are very pleased to offer to the readers of The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging this collection of articles published in the wake of the 1st Conference on Clinical trials in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), which took place in Montpellier, France, September 17-19th 2008. The wide range of topics in this supplement is representative of the wealth of information that was exchanged in the Conference, which took place after notable failures in Phase III of drugs acting on different aspects of amyloid metabolism. A fresh look at animal models and phase II/III methodology was urgently needed. One particular feature of this Conference and this supplement is awareness that outcomes used in randomized clinical trials must be translated into clinical effectiveness for users and payers. Furthermore investigators are well aware of the need to treat AD in its pre-dementia stages in order to prove disease modification. We now need to prove it using the best possible designs and outcomes.
We are pleased to publish in this issue of the journal a selection of publications (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) presented at the CTAD meeting in Montpellier. The CTAD is an International Conference on Clinical Trials in Alzheimer’s Disease. New drugs are presently in development with some potential disease modifying effects : gamma secretase and beta secretase inhibitors, alpha secretase modulators, passive and active immunotherapy, ….it is now time to work all together on the best study design for these trials. Moreover, validation and development of biomarkers, neuro-imaging are a hot topics for clinical trials. All these aspects were presented at the the CTAD meeting in Montpellier, France. The 2009 CTAD International Research Conference will be organized on October 28, 29, 30th, 2009 in Las Vegas, USA in conjunction with the opening of the Lou Ravo Brain Institute. The deadline for abstract submissions in June 15th, 2009 on http//www.ctad.fr. The 2010 CTAD conference will be hosted in Toulouse, France. The aims of these conferences are to bring together the principal investigator of major trials presently in process or development in the field of Alzheimer’s Disease.
References
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