Members of the OAP group receive, or have received, funding through grants from a number of different organisations. These include: Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust; Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society; Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Foundation Trust (CPFT); Department of Health; Dunhill Medical Trust; FIL Foundation; the Isaac Newton Trust; King’s College London; Lewy Body Society; Medical Research Council; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre; NHS Cambridgeshire; NIHR Applied Research Centres (ARCs); University of Cambridge.
We are grateful to all these funders, and to our other funders, for their support.
Our research projects are listed below, please click on each of the following to see details of the project.
The PREVENT Dementia study aims to identify the earliest signs of dementia, which scientists believe may occur in the brain decades before symptoms appear. The project hopes to find ways to predict who is at greatest risk of dementia, so that we can intervene and prevent the disease taking hold.
Visit the project website for details of the project: PREVENT Dementia
Optimising Brain health Outcomes in former Professional and Elite footballers (BrainHOPE)
BrainHOPE is funded by The Football Association (The FA) and FIFA (Football’s international governing body). Studies have identified former professional footballers as a population with potential higher risk of developing neurodegenerative disease. BrainHOPE will explore dementia risk factors specifically relevant to footballers, looking into the detailed history of players including the positions played in and experience of head injuries whilst playing. This will develop understanding of risk for dementia in football players to be able to mitigate neurodegenerative risk in this population and with the potential for application to wider contact sports across all population levels.
The project is part the wider PREVENT Dementia study.
Immune profiling in early cognitive disorders (IMPRINT)
This is a study exploring immunological biomarkers in early and prodromal stages of Lewy Body dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. There is increasing interest in the role that neuroinflammation plays in the onset and progression of neurodegenerative cognitive disorders. This study will collect blood saliva urine and spinal fluid samples in people with mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer s disease and Lewy body dementia as well as similarly aged healthy control volunteers. Immune changes in these disorders will be explored to identify to what extent they differ their impact on clinical symptoms and disease progression and how they change over time. The project is funded by Dementias Platform UK (DPUK), with researchers from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, in collaboration with NHS Trust partners.
Cambridge Centre for Parkinson Plus(CCPP)
The Cambridge Centre for Parkinson-Plus brings together a team of Cambridge based clinicians and clinician scientists leading internationally distinguished scientific programs, focussing their expertise and resources on the problems faced by Parkinson-Plus patients. The study draws on the resources and expertise of the UK Dementia Research Institute (DRI), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and other local sources, which together provide £119 million of infrastructure support for the research programmes.
For details on the project, please visit: Cambridge Centre for Parkinson Plus(CCPP)
We are co-investigators and a site for the HTA funded COmBinging memantine and cholinesterase inhibitors in Lewy body dementia treatment Trial (COBALT). This started recruitment earlier this year and is a multi-site study randomised controlled trial in the UK and Australia which will examine the effectiveness of memantine (compared to placebo) as a pharmacological treatment for those living with dementia with Lewy bodies or Parkinson’s disease dementia. The trial lasts for one year with the primary outcome at 6 months and includes a number of outcomes including such as cognition, daily functioning, neuropsychiatric symptoms, motor function, health economics and global outcome.
Multimodal Imaging in Lewy Body Disorders (MILOS)
Funded by The Lewy Body Society, Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, and Alzheimer’s Research UK, and led by Dr Li Su and Prof John O’Brien, the Multimodal Imaging in Lewy Body Disorders (MILOS) project aims to detect the damage to brain structure and function associated with Lewy Body Disorder.
We combine multiple state-of-the-art neuroimaging and computational techniques in this three years project in the University of Cambridge. First, we use Magnetoencephalography (MEG), to detect and measure electrical activity in the brain. Second, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used to measure changes in brain structure. Third, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) will be used to detect damaged protein (amyloid beta using the wellestablished PIB radioligand) in living brains that are indicative of pathology associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings will further our understanding on how DLB affects the patient’s brain, in particular the causes of cognitive decline and psychiatric symptoms, and how to detect this condition and treat it in the future.
Neuroimaging of Inflammation in Memory and Other Disorders (NIMROD)
This study aims to understand the role of inflammation in several forms of dementia, memory loss and depression. It also aims to understand the changes in the immune system, from immune cells circulating in the blood. To achieve this, NIMROD looks at brain changes in dementia, depression and related disorders in several different ways – changes in brain structure and function, psychology and memory, and inflammation. We will also look at the blood, for tell tale signs of inflammation or differences in the immune system.
Improving the diagnosis and management of neurodegenerative dementia of Lewy body type in the NHS.
Dementia is a national priority, both in relation to research and clinical service development. Central to improving patient care in those with dementia is the accurate recognition and diagnosis of sub-types of dementia and ensuring appropriate management. This programme focuses on Lewy body dementia (LBD), which includes two related disorders: dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson’s disease dementia. The signs and symptoms of LBD are often difficult to detect, and probably only a minority of those with DLB are correctly diagnosed; as a result, many patients with LBD do not receive the best possible management. This programme will deliver an assessment toolkit suitable for routine NHS use in secondary care, where dementia assessment and assessment of Parkinson’s disease occurs, and will produce a clinically relevant, evidence-based management pathway to guide clinicians. We anticipate a doubling of the numbers of those with Lewy body dementia being recognised, and therefore appropriately managed. Since most Lewy body dementias are misdiagnosed for Alzheimer’s disease, improving the accuracy of Lewy body dementia diagnosis will consequently improve the accuracy for other dementia diagnoses, including Alzheimer’s disease. The programme’s ambition is the wider dissemination of the assessment and management tool throughout the NHS, with subsequent wide impact in terms of improving patient care for those with Lewy body dementia.
ENtorhinal CoRtex-hippocampal circuit in PREVENT
Aims of study:
A major challenge in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research is identifying patients early enough in the disease course to give therapeutic interventions. ENCRYPT aims to test the hypothesis that entorhinal cortex (EC) and hippocampal (HC) function are impaired prior to symptom onset in AD, which may yield new cognitive tests capable of detecting earlier disease related changes than currently possible. It uses a novel approach of navigation testing to do so, given the presence of unique spatial ‘GPS’ cells in EC which is one of the first affected regions. ENCRYPT is a sub-study in the PREVENT Dementia Programme, aiming to recruit around 100 PREVENT participants who are aged between 40-60 and have undergone longitudinal cognitive, biomarker and clinical profiling for AD risk factors. Participants will complete an immersive virtual reality test of navigation and a 7 tesla MRI scan. This state of the art super high-resolution imaging enables detailed visualisation of the structure and function of the EC, which as a tiny brain region is not easily visible on conventional 3 tesla scans. This ENCRYPT data will be cross-referenced with PREVENT data on AD risk factors to determine how EC navigation function is impacted by AD risk.
Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarkers in Dementia with Lewy Bodies: A UK Longitudinal Study
The ENLIST-UK study is a 3-year longitudinal observational study aiming to recruit people with a diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies, Parkinson’s disease dementia or Alzheimer’s disease (for comparison purposes). Over the duration of the study, participants are invited to complete 5 visits (Screening, Baseline, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3). They are asked to complete neuropsychiatric questionnaires, undergo a blood test for biomarkers, and are also offered the option of a lumbar puncture to collect cerebrospinal fluid.
The main objective is to examine if the presence of clinical core features, pro inflammatory cytokines or CSF AD markers are associated with increased rate of cognitive decline. A secondary objective is to build up a large cohort of people with dementia with Lewy bodies in the UK, collecting biological samples and longitudinal clinical and cognitive data.
This is a multicentered study within the United Kingdom of which Cambridge is a site. Kings College London is the main sponsor.
Sponsor: Kings College London
Funder: ARUK
Chief Investigator – Professor Dag Aarsland, King's College London
Principal Investigator – Professor John O’Brien, University of Cambridge