On 13 December 2016, the Financial Times (FT) published a letter to the Editor, from EPAD Executive Committee member Dr Jose Luis Molinuevo of the BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Center. The letter was titled “Early intervention is key to tackling Alzheimer’s”.

Making reference to the FT editorial “The case for prioritising Alzheimer’s research” of 26 November 2016 – which talks of the growing consensus in the scientific community that the genesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) precedes the onset of dementia by over 20 years and the therefore urgent need to increase focus on research into an effective treatment – Dr Molinuevo highlights the importance of focusing on research into prevention also. Researchers are increasingly focusing their efforts on prevention and early intervention before symptoms appear, as a more effective way to tackle the disease, he points out.

The letter lists some examples of prevention research programmes in Europe, research initiatives funded by governments in the US and Europe, public private partnerships, international clinical trials aimed at preventing Alzheimer’s dementia, as well as the creation of registries linked to these trials. Aside from the US registries, Dr Molinuevo describes the EPAD project and its goal of creating a Europe-wide register of 24,000 people.

https://www.ft.com/content/b31999e6-c09b-11e6-9bca-2b93a6856354