Clinical trial NCT03382353: EMuNI Project: Multiple Nonpharmacological Interventions
Official title: Efficacy of Multiple Nonpharmacological Interventions in Individuals With Subjective Memory Complaints
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Lifestyle Risk Reduction
Keywords: primary prevention
Subjective Cognitive Decline
Neuroimaging
Alzheimer's disease
nonpharmacological interventions
multidomain lifestyle interventions
Lead sponsor: IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Ospedale San Raffaele
name: Istituto Di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri
First posted: 2017-12-22
Enrollment: 120
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 60
Maximum age (years): 80
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: By 2030, the global prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is predicted to reach 65.7 million worldwide. Despite extensive research efforts, a cure for AD has not been identified. Recent studies on non-demented individuals have demonstrated the importance of a healthy lifestyle (physical exercise, healthy diet) and non pharmacological interventions (diet supplements) to delay the onset of the cognitive decline (Vemuri P et al., 2012). Given that AD is a multi-factorial disorder, some multi- component interventions at early stages could be the best strategy currently available to delay the AD onset. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of combined non-pharmacological interventions, at different levels of intensity, on cognitive performance, on basic (hippocampal, brain ventricle volumes and white matter lesions) and advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) markers (Resting-state Functional MRI, Probabilistic Diffusion Tensor Tractography

Detailed description: BACKGROUND Recent evidence showed that aerobic exercise, dietary habits and nutritional supplements consumption seem essential for maintaining good cognitive performances increasing hippocampal volume (HV) in healthy elderly people (Erickson et al., 2011; Bowman et al., 2012). Computerized cognitive trainings are effective in improving cognitive functions of healthy older adults (Lampit et al., 2014). Subjective memory complaint (SMC) individuals showed HV, white matter lesions (WML) and brain ventricle volumes (BVV) at limits of normative population (Cavedo et al., 2012) supporting the hypothesis that they are persons at risk of AD (Sperling et al., 2011). The above non-pharmacological treatments, when separately applied, do not impact on cognition and neuropathological processes of AD. On the contrary, combined treatments, in persons at risk to develop AD, could represent the first line of intervention to delay the onset of cognitive impairment.

SPECIFIC AIMS

1. To investigate the combined effect of aerobic exercise, dietary habits, nutritional supplements, and cognitive training administered at three different levels of intensity on cognitive performance in subjective memory complaints individuals. The three different intensity levels of nonpharmacological treatments will be organized as follows: (i) No Treatment (NT) will include educational training (sham condition); (ii) Partial Treatment (PT) will include exclusively the consumption of a nutritional supplement and a training for a balanced diet; (iii) Full treatment (FT) will include all above condition plus computerized cognitive training (no sham condition) and aerobic fitness training.
2. To investigate the effect of the above treatments (NT, PT, FT) on basic markers of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) such as HV, WML and Brain Ventricle Volume (BVV) in subjective memory complaints individuals.
3. To investigate the effect of NT, PT and FT on advanced MRI markers such as structural brain connectivity and brain resting networks in subjective memory complaints individuals.

HYPHOTESIS AND SIGNIFICANCE An improvement in cognitive performances, basic (HV, WML, BVV) and advanced (structural brain connectivity and brain resting networks) MRI markers will be expected in FT group compared to NT group. Moreover, the investigators hypothesize an effect dependent of the number of combined treatments, thus the PT group is expected to show intermediate results (among NT and FT groups) in the cognitive performances, basic and advanced MRI markers previously described.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* age between 60 and 80 years;
* presence of memory complaints

Exclusion Criteria:

* objective cognitive impairment on standard neuropsychological testing;
* history of psychiatric disorders or current clinically relevant depressive or anxious symptoms;
* pacemakers, cochlear implant, metal inserts in the head or shoulders

Primary outcomes:
measure: Cognitive functions
timeFrame: 12 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Basic imaging marker 1
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Basic imaging marker 2
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Basic imaging marker 3
timeFrame: 12 months
Other outcomes:
measure: Advanced imaging marker 1
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Advanced imaging marker 2
timeFrame: 12 months
Locations:
city: Brescia
country: Italy
facility: IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli
city: Milan
country: Italy
facility: Ospedale San Raffaele
Study officials:
affiliation: IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli
name: Enrica Cavedo, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Bowman GL, Silbert LC, Howieson D, Dodge HH, Traber MG, Frei B, Kaye JA, Shannon J, Quinn JF. Nutrient biomarker patterns, cognitive function, and MRI measures of brain aging. Neurology. 2012 Jan 24;78(4):241-9. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182436598. Epub 2011 Dec 28.
citation: Cavedo E, Galluzzi S, Pievani M, Boccardi M, Frisoni GB. Norms for imaging markers of brain reserve. J Alzheimers Dis. 2012;31(3):623-33. doi: 10.3233/JAD-2012-111817.
citation: Erickson KI, Voss MW, Prakash RS, Basak C, Szabo A, Chaddock L, Kim JS, Heo S, Alves H, White SM, Wojcicki TR, Mailey E, Vieira VJ, Martin SA, Pence BD, Woods JA, McAuley E, Kramer AF. Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Feb 15;108(7):3017-22. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1015950108. Epub 2011 Jan 31.
citation: Lampit A, Hallock H, Valenzuela M. Computerized cognitive training in cognitively healthy older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of effect modifiers. PLoS Med. 2014 Nov 18;11(11):e1001756. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001756. eCollection 2014 Nov.
citation: Sperling RA, Aisen PS, Beckett LA, Bennett DA, Craft S, Fagan AM, Iwatsubo T, Jack CR Jr, Kaye J, Montine TJ, Park DC, Reiman EM, Rowe CC, Siemers E, Stern Y, Yaffe K, Carrillo MC, Thies B, Morrison-Bogorad M, Wagster MV, Phelps CH. Toward defining the preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease: recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Dement. 2011 May;7(3):280-92. doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2011.03.003. Epub 2011 Apr 21.
citation: Vemuri P, Lesnick TG, Przybelski SA, Knopman DS, Roberts RO, Lowe VJ, Kantarci K, Senjem ML, Gunter JL, Boeve BF, Petersen RC, Jack CR Jr. Effect of lifestyle activities on Alzheimer disease biomarkers and cognition. Ann Neurol. 2012 Nov;72(5):730-8. doi: 10.1002/ana.23665.