Utilization of fluid-based biomarkers as endpoints in disease-modifying clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review.

Background: Clinical trials in Alzheimer's disease (AD) had high failure rates for several reasons, including the lack of biological endpoints. Fluid-based biomarkers may present a solution to measure biologically relevant endpoints. It is currently unclear to what extent fluid-based biomarkers are applied to support drug development.

Core protocol development for phase 2/3 clinical trials in the leukodystrophy vanishing white matter: a consensus statement by the VWM consortium and patient advocates.

Background: The leukodystrophy "Vanishing White Matter" (VWM) is an orphan disease with neurological decline and high mortality. Currently, VWM has no approved treatments, but advances in understanding pathophysiology have led to identification of promising therapies. Several investigational medicinal products are either in or about to enter clinical trial phase.

Therapy Trial Design in Vanishing White Matter: An Expert Consortium Opinion.

Vanishing white matter (VWM) is a leukodystrophy caused by recessive variants in the genes . It is characterized by chronic neurologic deterioration with superimposed stress-provoked episodes of rapid decline. Disease onset spans from the antenatal period through senescence.

The Alzheimer's disease drug development landscape.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease leading to dementia. The field has made significant progress over the last 15 years. AD diagnosis has shifted from syndromal, based on signs and symptoms, to a biomarker construct based on the pathological hallmarks of the disease: amyloid β deposition, pathologic tau, and neurodegeneration.

Hippocampal extracellular matrix alterations contribute to cognitive impairment associated with a chronic depressive-like state in rats.

Patients with depression often suffer from cognitive impairments that contribute to disease burden. We used social defeat-induced persistent stress (SDPS) to induce a depressive-like state in rats and then studied long-lasting memory deficits in the absence of acute stressors in these animals. The SDPS rat model showed reduced short-term object location memory and maintenance of long-term potentiation (LTP) in CA1 pyramidal neurons of the dorsal hippocampus.