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Health-RI partner in ABOARD to stop Alzheimer’s
A collaboration of more than thirty partners launched a personalized medicine approach for Alzheimer’s disease. The project called ABOARD aims to prepare for a future in which Alzheimer’s disease is stopped before dementia has started. ABOARD achieves this by improving diagnostic markers, developing personalised risk scores and by focusing on prevention through increased awareness of dementia and brain health. Health-RI is partner in ABOARD.
In the Netherlands, almost 300.000 individuals are living with dementia, a number that grows by 20.000 every year. Dementia is one of the largest health care challenges of our century. Dementia is largely caused by Alzheimer’s disease, for which there is no cure yet. To lower the number of individuals with dementia, ABOARD focuses on the alzheimer-stages before dementia onset.
Prevention is the key
Wiesje van der Flier, principal investigator of ABOARD and scientific director of the Alzheimer Center Amsterdam commented: “We now know that Alzheimer’s develops over a period of twenty to thirty years. And there is the key to finding solutions: intervening before the disease manifests clinically. We need to reach people at risk of getting the disease. And those people are all of us, actually. That is why we want to increase the awareness of Alzheimer’s among the general public. In addition, we take the necessary steps to prepare for a future in which personalized medicine is possible. Sharing knowledge about ways to boost your brain health and supporting people with Alzheimer’s is also a part of this project. There is still a lot of work to do.”
Predict the disease course
ABOARD researchers are going to develop tests that allow for an early and precise diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. These tests must identify the first brain changes, and they need to recognize variability between patients. Based on these tests, we develop personalized risk profiles to predict individual disease trajectories.
Personalized treatment
Practitioners often get the same question after diagnosing Alzheimer’s: ‘What can I do myself to slow the disease process?’. Van der Flier: “Prevention by making lifestyle changes can be useful, but lifestyle interventions are not yet offered as part of the treatment plan in memory clinics. We also see rapid developments in the field of pharmaceutical treatments. We need to take the necessary steps to prepare the Dutch healthcare system for the first Alzheimer treatments. ABOARD pays particular attention to including individuals in all aspects of their disease and its treatment, since no human being is the same.”
Stopping Alzheimer’s before the onset of dementia
The ABOARD-consortium brings together over 30 partners dedicated to achieve personalized medicine for Alzheimer’s disease. Health-RI is partner in ABROAD. Leone Flikweert, CEO of Health-RI: “Health-RI will support ABOARD with expert advice on how to deal with the ethical, legal and societal questions involved in research using personal data. Health-RI will also assist with building a national health data infrastructure enabling ABOARD to efficiently and responsibly collect the large amounts of data needed for this research project. This way, Health-RI contributes to ABOARD’s mission, stopping Alzheimer’s before it starts.”
For more information visit the ABOARD project website.