Dementia Prevention Research Clinic

New Zealand’s first Dementia Prevention Research Clinic opens today in Auckland at the University of Auckland, and is the first of a national network of Dementia Prevention Research Clinics established by Brain Research New Zealand (BRNZ). The clinics will be at the frontline of collaborative research studies involving individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MPI) and those with very early Alzheimer’s disease.

The DPRC will enable cutting-edge research to identify factors, or groups of factors, that influence progression from Mild Cognitive Impairment to dementia. This will help the development of testing and scientific research of novel treatments and lifestyle interventions to slow disease onset and progression.

“Slowing the disease onset and progression by five years would cut the prevalence of Alzheimer’s and dementia by 50 percent, because people would live a healthy life longer, and remain intellectually, physically and socially active into old age” says Professor Richard Faull. “This would have a huge benefit on the quality of life in our increasing ageing population and markedly reduce the costs of health care.”

BRNZ undertakes ground breaking scientific studies on the ageing brain and ageing-related brain disorders, adn is government funded. Further Dementia Prevention Research Clinics are scheduled to open in Christchurch and Dunedin later this year. This national collaborative research effort involves partnerships between neuroscientists from the Universities of Auckland, Otago, Canterbury and AUT, clinicians from the District Health Boards, and the community.

The clinics offer an exciting new opportunity for people in the earliest stages of dementia to join a longitudinal study which holds promise for future research findings.

The first phase of the clinics is to recruit people with MCI into a longitudinal study to identify biomarkers, or a biomarker signature, that indicates those who will go onto develop Alzheimer’s Disease.

When patients and their families attend the dementia clinic they will typically undergo a detailed characterisation of their brain health and lifestyle. Blood tests and MRI scans will be conducted and this data will provide invaluable information to neuroscientists and doctors attempting to identify biomarkers and clinical markers of disease.

The DPRC will collect holistic information by listening to the experiences of the research participant and the needs of family members and care-givers. Clinic participants will be monitored and  invited to participate in a broad range of preliminary clinical trials by researchers at BRNZ.

This could include testing novel drugs, nutritional supplements, and cognitive, social and physical interventions designed to prevent, delay or ameliorate MCI and other related dementias.