Healthy older volunteers needed for Alzheimer's disease study

Thursday, August 29, 2002

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Aug. 29, 2002 — Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., are recruiting 300 healthy volunteers age 85 and older to participate in a study to identify genes that may delay or prevent Alzheimer's disease. Volunteers must have a sibling who is 80 years old or older willing to participate as well. Neither of the two can have dementia, and there must be no known family history of dementia.

Researchers will give volunteers a brief memory test over the phone and ask for the name of a good friend, spouse or child who can confirm that the volunteer does not have significant memory problems. Neither the volunteer nor the participating brother or sister need to live in the Jacksonville area. However, some volunteers will be brought to the clinic for an hour-long test of memory and other cognitive skills.

In addition, all volunteers must consent to giving a blood sample for a genome scan. This technique will be used to identify DNA areas shared by the non-demented volunteers and thought to contain genes that delay or prevent development of Alzheimer's disease. "There are candidate genes we already suspect might be preventive," says Dr. Neill Graff-Radford, chair of the Department of Neurology at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and principal investigator for the study.

Graff-Radford says investigators will be particularly interested in enrolling volunteers with many living relatives 85 years old or older who do not have dementia. "Large families by themselves might yield a gene regardless of the rest of the study," he says.

Francine Parfitt, director of Mayo's Memory Disorder Clinic and study co-investigator, thinks participating will appeal to older volunteers. "This study has a health and aging focus and may be instrumental in understanding preventive genes."

Parfitt notes that many clinical trials, especially those that involve pharmaceuticals, don't recruit people in this age group because of the assumption that older people have too many chronic health problems. "So I think this is a unique opportunity for an older person," she says. "They're not inconvenienced. We can do this over the phone, and if they do elect to come in, we'll help them transportation if they need it."

Those interested in participating may call (904) 953-7897.

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