ATRI's Dr. Michael Rafii recently presented at CTAD '23 with his talk titled "Alzheimer’s Disease in Down Syndrome: Natural History, Biomarkers and Clinical Trials."
The talk centered on how people with Down Syndrome (DS) have a genetic form of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and that AD is now the leading cause of death in this population. Dr. Rafii broke down recent data from the Alzheimer’s Biomarker Consortium – Down syndrome (ABC-DS) and the Down Alzheimer Barcelona Neuroimaging Initiative (DABNI) which have demonstrated that the natural history of clinical and biomarker changes in DS are nearly identical to that of autosomal AD. Dr. Rafii leads the Alzheimer's Clinical Trial Consortium -Down Syndrome (ACTC-DS), a platform to bring the latest advances in AD therapeutics to the DS population. Several clinical trials are underway or being planned.
Speaking about the findings, Dr. Rafii said:
"Over the past 10 years, tremendous strides have been made in our understanding of AD in people with DS. With this knowledge, we are working towards bringing the latest AD therapies to the Down syndrome community."