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Phila. centers recruiting for big Alzheimer's prevention trial

Two area centers are now recruiting patients for a clinical trial that will test whether two investigational drugs can prevent Alzheimer's disease in cognitively normal patients who are at high risk for the condition.

The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Abington Neurological Associates, a private practice in Willow Grove, are looking for patients who test positive for two copies of the APOE4 gene, which increases the odds of developing dementia later in life. About 2 percent of the population falls in that category.  Study participants must be willing to learn about their genetic status.  Researchers are looking for people who are 60 to 75 and have normal memory and thinking ability.

The drugs being tested target amyloid, a protein that builds up in the brains of people with Alzheimer's, the most common type of dementia.  While the quest for treatments for the dreaded disease have been disappointing so far,  experts hope that medications will be more effective if given before patients have extensive brain damage.

The five-year trial, called the Generation Study, is led by Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Phoenix and Novartis, which makes the drugs being tested.

Trial leaders want patients to receive genetic testing first.  For more information about that, go to https://www.endalznow.org/genematch  If you already know you have two copies of the APOE4 gene, you can go to info@endALZnow.org  or call 1(888) STOP-ALZ.