Demands on the Clinical Core for clearly defined samples of persons with AD, related dementias, MCI, Lewy body spectrum disease, and age-matched controls have become more complex. Subject samples appropriate for one type of Investigation (e.g., a clinical treatment trial) are often not appropriate for other types of studies (e.g., case-control epidemiologic or genetic linkage analysis studies). Still others are needed for training clinicians to manage the multiple clinical problems expressed during the course of dementia. To meet these demands, the Clinical Core will continue to provide AD patients, non-AD dementia patients, MCI, and cognitively normal subjects selected for maximum appropriateness for participation in clinical studies. We will focus on early AD, MCI, and cognitively normal older controls. In addition, subjects with non-AD neurodegenerative dementing disorders and Lewy body spectrum disease will be recruited and followed. The Clinical Core jointly with the Education and Information Core will recruit African American AD patients, non-AD dementia patients, MCI, and cognitively normal subjects who are willing to participate in the full range of UW ADRC and ADRC-affiliated clinical research. Clinical Core personnel support and interact with population-based cohorts of late life dementia and normal control subjects appropriate for epidemiologic studies and for accession of normal control postmortem brain tissue. We will continue to collect cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), plasma and serum on these subject samples, and through multi-ADC collaborative efforts, continue to expand the UW ADRC CSF bank to support the search for biomarkers for diagnosis, monitoring disease progression, and identifying asymptomatic persons at risk for dementing disorders. Subjects, biological fluid samples, and data will be provided to meet the research needs of ADRC investigators, the broader UW research community, and investigators at other Institutions.
AD remains an impending public health crisis with no very effective treatments, no cure, and no prevention. This application responds to the need for increased knowledge in AD so that effective treatments can be developed.
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