Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia, Mild Cognitive Impairment
Conditions
Keywords
Alzheimer's Disease, biomarker, Transcranial alternating current stimulation, functional connectivity, Brain network
Brief summary
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive cognitive dysfunction and behavioral impairment. It is currently the most common type of dementia in the old age. At present, the clinical treatment of Alzheimer's disease is expensive and has side effects, so it is very important to explore new methods of treatment for AD. Investigators designed a prospective, randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled trial to investigate the effect of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) on cognitive function in AD patients and to assess the biological effectiveness of the treatment.
Detailed description
As the population is aging, there is an urgent need to develop new methods of treatment for AD. Noninvasive neuro-regulation is a new technique in treating neuropsychiatric diseases. It include transcranial magnetic stimulation, traditional transcranial direct current stimulation, traditional transcranial alternating current stimulation and etc. Previously, conventional transcranial direct current stimulation had shown inconsistent results in the treatment for AD. This may be related to the low current density of traditional electrical stimulation in deep brain areas, such as hippocampus and amygdala, and leading to poor stimulation effect. Compared with the traditional transcranial electrical stimulation technology, the high intensity tACS greatly improves the current intensity, so that the electric field intensity to the deep brain nucleus during stimulation is greatly increased, and it avoids side effects such as burning sensation. Therefore, it could be used for AD patients. However, there are few clinical studies on high intensity tACS on AD, so investigators designed a randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled trial to explore the effect of high-current tACS on AD. At the same time, multimodal functional brain imaging before and after treatment will be used to compare the changes of brain function activation and cerebral hemodynamics in AD.
Interventions
DEVICETranscranial alternating current stimulation(real stimulation)
Real tACS is an emerging noninvasive neuro-regulation technique that applies a specific frequency of stimulation and a specific intensity of weak current to the brain by means of electrodes placed in the skull.
DEVICETranscranial alternating current stimulation(sham stimulation)
Transcranial alternating current stimulation (sham-stimulation) is an emerging noninvasive neuro-regulation technique that applies a specific frequency of stimulation and a specific intensity of a weak current to the brain by means of electrodes placed in the skull. The subjects felt the same as the real stimulus when receiving the sham-stimulus treatment, but the sham-stimulus did not have the current stimulation.
Sponsors
Anhui Provincial Hospital
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator)
Masking description
Investigators designed a double-blinded trial in which neither the investigator nor the subjects know whether they will be received the treatment or a placebo.
Intervention model description
Investigators designed a randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled trial by randomly dividing subjects into two groups: one is the treatment group and the other is the placebo group.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
45 Years to 85 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
1. Meet the diagnostic criteria of National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) 2011 for Alzheimer's disease, Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) score is greater than or equal to 0.5 and less than or equal to 1, and amyloid PET imaging is positive. 2. Have the ability to cooperate with neuropsychological testing, EEG measurement, and MRI examination; 3. Have willingness to undergo cognitive psychological evaluation; 4. Do not have cognitive impairment due to other degenerative diseases or viral and immune encephalitis; 5. The length of schooling is at least 3 years.
Exclusion criteria
1. Do not suffer from severe depression, anxiety and other mental illness; 2. Do not suffer from major diseases such as tumors, heart and lung diseases, nervous system diseases, etc. 3. Do not have been diagnosed with other dementia such as Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), lewy body dementia (DLB), and normal cranial pressure hydrocephalus (NPH).
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Cognitive appraisal | A total of 5 times will be measured, before the treatment, immediately after the treatment, 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-ups. | A series of cognitive functions such as verbal function and visuospatial functions will be evaluated by Clock drawing test (maximum score =4, minimum score =0, the higher the better) and Boston Naming Test (maximum score =30, minimum score =0, the higher the better) ect. |
| Global Cognitive appraisal | A total of 5 times will be measured, before the treatment, immediately after the treatment, 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-ups. | Overall cognitive function will be assessed through Clinical Dementia Rating(maximum score =3, minimum score =0, the higher the better) and Minimum Mental State Examination(maximum score =30, minimum score =0, the higher the better) ect. |
| Psychobehavioral assessment | A total of 5 times will be measured, before the treatment, immediately after the treatment, 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-ups. | The mental and behavioral states of the patients will be evaluated by Neuropsychiatric Inventory(maximum score =144, minimum score =0, the lower the better) and Hamilton's Depression Scale (maximum score =68, minimum score =0, the lower the better) ect. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Magnetic Resonance Imaging | A total of 3 measurements, before treatment, immediately after treatment, 1 month follow-up | Brain function before and after treatment will be measured by MRI |
| Near-infrared spectroscopy | A total of 5 times will be measured, before the treatment, immediately after the treatment, 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-ups. | The brain function of the patients before and after treatment will be assessed by near infrared functional brain imaging |
| Incidence of side effects | Interviews will be conducted daily after treatment and once at 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-ups. | After daily treatment, the subjects will be interviewed by the investigator, and the possible adverse reactions such as headache and fatigue ect. observed will be collected and recorded in the case report form. After the end of the experiment, investigators will calculate the probability of the occurrence of the side effects observed in the experiment through the case report form in the interview. |
| Event related potential measurement | A total of 5 times will be measured, before the treatment, immediately after the treatment, 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-ups. | Event related potential indicators will be evaluated before and after treatment by electroencephalogram. |
| Peripheral blood biomarkers | A total of 5 times will be measured, before the treatment, immediately after the treatment, 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-ups. | Peripheral blood biomarkers such as the concentration of tau and amyloid protein will be detected by SiMoA before and after treatment |
Contacts
Primary ContactJiong Shi, doctor
Outcome results
None listed