Pre-clinical studies play an essential role in discovering new treatments for preventing Alzheimer’s disease

By Danae Ingram

True North Clinical Research, now called Centricity Research, is working to support global pharmaceutical research related to the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Their work in pre-clinical Alzheimer’s Disease studies helps researchers to discover new and innovative treatments. Pre-clinical studies allow researchers to potentially discover preventative treatments for certain diseases, including Alzheimer’s’ Disease.

Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common form of dementia, is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that affects millions of people worldwide. In Nova Scotia alone, there are approximately 17,000 individuals living with the disease.

“At present, there are no approved treatments on the market available to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease,” says Nicole Blanchard, Centricity’s Regional Operations Manager and Project Manager for Central Nervous System trials. “The work that we do helps researchers to determine whether medications being tested are safe, and effective, in that prevention.”

An Important Step in Discovering New Treatments

Pre-clinical studies are an important step in the research process that can result in new treatments being made available to the general public. Some of these studies may even help to discover treatments that may prevent individuals from developing Alzheimer’s disease in the future. These studies involve volunteers from the community who are interested in being an integral part of scientific discovery.

“The clinical research trials that we conduct at True North are an important step in the process of developing new pharmaceutical drugs to prevent, treat, or potentially cure disease. New medications must be tested thoroughly on human volunteers in order to prove that they are safe and have a positive impact on the health of a patient,” says Blanchard.

Many of the Alzheimer’s disease studies conducted at True North Clinical Research are placebo controlled, double-blind trials that test the safety and effectiveness of medications. A placebo is like a sugar pill, so it is administered like the drug but does not contain the actual drug itself.  Blinded means no study participants or staff will know (until the end of the trial) whether they are receiving drug or placebo. Participants are closely monitored by highly trained medical professionals in order to ensure their safety.

Volunteers Without an Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosis Are Currently Needed

While many dementia studies require volunteers with some form of Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment, other studies seek volunteers with no memory impairment at all. True North Clinical Research is currently recruiting pre-clinical study participants, that is those who do not yet have Alzheimer’s disease or notable memory impairment but are considered at risk, possibly because of a family history of the disease.

“Anyone is welcome to come have their memory assessed at True North.” Blanchard continues, “This is a great way to determine what, if any, level of memory impairment someone is living with. If interested, we can then help patients get involved in a clinical trial .”

Pre-clinical study volunteers are helping researchers to improve treatments for future generations. Without these volunteers, new treatments and therapies would not reach the general population.

Getting Involved

If you are interested in finding out how you can participate in a pre-clinical trial, contact True North Clinical Research to book a free memory assessment. Once this has been completed, the clinical staff will advise you whether you qualify for any of their current volunteer research opportunities.

True North Clinical Research has locations in Halifax and New Minas. Call 1-855-378-8783 or visit them online.

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