McCance Center Launches New Efforts to Prevent AD

We are excited to launch an ambitious program to prevent Alzheimer’s disease (AD) – “The Pre-AD Initiative” (Prediction and Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease). This initiative builds on the dovetailing of three recent breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s research: definitive proof that beta-amyloid is the trigger for the disease, the development of a revolutionary “Alzheimer’s in a Dish™” model for drug discovery, and blood biomarkers that can diagnose and track the disease decades before symptoms appear. These advancements allow us to design safe and affordable drug and natural product combinations that could prevent Alzheimer’s disease in those at risk.

While new Alzheimer’s drugs like Leqembi and Kisunla have shown promise in slowing the disease in early stages, their high costs and potential side effects make them unsuitable for preventing Alzheimer’s in healthy individuals. McCance Center-affiliated researchers have identified hundreds of FDA-approved drugs and natural products that, like these newer drugs, can clear harmful amyloid deposits from the brain. By combining these treatments into powerful, affordable “cocktails,” we aim to address the disease decades before symptoms arise. Testing in our innovative “Alzheimer’s in a Dish™” model has already identified dozens of promising combinations, and clinical trials using blood biomarkers for early detection are the next step toward making these therapies available. Blood biomarkers will allow rapid clinical trials to determine which drug cocktails are most effective in halting Alzheimer’s before symptoms develop.

Learn more about this groundbreaking initiative.