The TOMMORROW study: Design of an Alzheimer's disease delay-of-onset clinical trial.

INTRODUCTION: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a continuum with neuropathologies manifesting years before clinical symptoms; thus, AD research is attempting to identify more disease-modifying approaches to test treatments administered before full disease expression. Designing such trials in cognitively normal elderly individuals poses unique challenges. METHODS: The TOMMORROW study was a phase 3 double-blind, parallel-group study designed to support qualification of a novel genetic biomarker risk assignment algorithm (BRAA) and to assess efficacy and safety of low-dose pioglitazone to delay onset of mild cognitive impairment due to AD. Eligible participants were stratified based on the BRAA (using TOMM40 rs 10524523 genotype, Apolipoprotein E genotype, and age), with high-risk individuals receiving low-dose pioglitazone or placebo and low-risk individuals receiving placebo. The primary endpoint was time to the event of mild cognitive impairment due to AD. The primary objectives were to compare the primary endpoint between high- and low-risk placebo groups (for BRAA qualification) and between high-risk pioglitazone and high-risk placebo groups (for pioglitazone efficacy). Approximately 300 individuals were also asked to participate in a volumetric magnetic resonance imaging substudy at selected sites. RESULTS: The focus of this paper is on the design of the study; study results will be presented in a separate paper. DISCUSSION: The design of the TOMMORROW study addressed many key challenges to conducting a dual-objective phase 3 pivotal AD clinical trial in presymptomatic individuals. Experiences from planning and executing the TOMMORROW study may benefit future AD prevention/delay-of-onset trials.

TOMMORROW neuropsychological battery: German language validation and normative study.

INTRODUCTION: Assessment of preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) requires reliable and validated methods to detect subtle cognitive changes. The battery of standardized cognitive assessments that is used for diagnostic criteria for mild cognitive impairment due to AD in the TOMMORROW study have only been fully validated in English-speaking countries. We conducted a validation and normative study of the German language version of the TOMMORROW neuropsychological test battery, which tests episodic memory, language, visuospatial ability, executive function, and attention. METHODS: German-speaking cognitively healthy controls (NCs) and subjects with AD were recruited from a memory clinic at a Swiss medical center. Construct validity, test-retest, and alternate form reliability were assessed in NCs. Criterion and discriminant validities of the cognitive measures were tested using logistic regression and discriminant analysis. Cross-cultural equivalency of performance of the German language tests was compared with English language tests. RESULTS: A total of 198 NCs and 25 subjects with AD (aged 65-88 years) were analyzed. All German language tests discriminated NCs from persons with AD. Episodic memory tests had the highest potential to discriminate with almost twice the predictive power of any other domain. Test-retest reliability of the test battery was adequate, and alternate form reliability for episodic memory tests was supported. For most tests, age was a significant predictor of group effect sizes; therefore, normative data were stratified by age. Validity and reliability results were similar to those in the published US cognitive testing literature. DISCUSSION: This study establishes the reliability and validity of the German language TOMMORROW test battery, which performed similarly to the English language tests. Some variations in test performance underscore the importance of regional normative values. The German language battery and normative data will improve the precision of measuring cognition and diagnosing incident mild cognitive impairment due to AD in clinical settings in German-speaking countries.

Characterization of APOE and TOMM40 allele frequencies in the Japanese population.

INTRODUCTION: Dementia is one of the major health threats to our aging society, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause. In Japan, ∼15% of the elderly population has dementia. The apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype and a polymorphism (rs10524523) in the translocase of outer mitochondrial membrane 40 (TOMM40) gene have been associated with the age of onset of AD. However, differences in allele frequencies of these markers in different ethnic populations are not well known. METHODS: Whole blood samples were collected from 300 Japanese subjects, and genomic DNA was extracted to determine APOE alleles and TOMM40 rs10524523 genotypes. RESULTS: Our results indicated that the APOE ε3-TOMM40'523 short haplotype is less frequent in Japanese subjects than in Caucasians, whereas the APOE ε3-TOMM40'523 long and APOE ε3-TOMM40'523 very long haplotypes are more frequent in Japanese subjects than in Caucasians. We also showed that the APOE ε4-TOMM40'523 short haplotype, which was noted to be frequently observed in African Americans, was also found in the Japanese population, although it is extremely rare in the Caucasian population. DISCUSSION: A biomarker risk assignment algorithm, using a combination of APOE, TOMM40'523 genotype, and age, has been developed to assign near-term risk for developing the onset of mild cognitive impairment due to AD and is being used as an enrichment tool in an ongoing delay-of-onset clinical trial. Understanding the characterization of APOE and TOMM40 allele frequencies in the Japanese population is the first step in developing a risk algorithm for AD research and clinical applications for AD prevention in Japan.

Peginesatide to Manage Anemia in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients on Peritoneal Dialysis.

UNLABELLED: ♦ BACKGROUND: Peginesatide is a novel, synthetic, peptide-based pegylated erythropoiesis-stimulating agent that is designed specifically to stimulate the erythropoietin receptor. The purpose of the present study was to assess, for the first time, the efficacy and safety of peginesatide in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients receiving peritoneal dialysis (PD) and previously on epoetin treatment. ♦ METHODS: In this open-label multicenter study, 59 PD patients with CKD were converted from epoetin (alfa or beta) to once-monthly peginesatide. Doses were titrated to maintain hemoglobin levels between 10 g/dL and 12 g/dL during the 25 weeks of the study. The primary endpoint was change from baseline in mean hemoglobin values during the evaluation period (weeks 20 - 25). ♦ RESULTS: The mean hemoglobin value during the evaluation period was 11.3 ± 1.07 g/dL, and the mean change from baseline was 0.10 ± 1.15 g/dL (95% confidence limits: -0.24, 0.44 g/dL). During the evaluation period, most patients maintained hemoglobin levels between 10 g/dL and 12 g/dL (63.0%) and within ±1.0 g/dL of baseline (60.9%). The median weekly epoetin dose at baseline was 96.0 U/kg, and the median starting peginesatide dose was 0.047 mg/kg. Forty-three patients (72.9%) completed the study. Six patients (10.2%) received red blood cell transfusions. The observed adverse event profile was consistent with underlying conditions in the PD patient population. The most common adverse event was peritonitis (20.3%), a complication commonly associated with PD. Four deaths occurred during the study (2 related to septic shock, and 1 each to myocardial ischemia and myasthenia gravis). ♦ CONCLUSIONS: In this study, once-monthly peginesatide maintained hemoglobin levels in PD patients after conversion from epoetin.

Peginesatide for maintenance treatment of anemia in hemodialysis and nondialysis patients previously treated with darbepoetin alfa.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Peginesatide (Omontys) is a novel, synthetic, PEGylated, peptide-based erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) that is designed to specifically stimulate the erythropoietin receptor. This study evaluated maintenance of hemoglobin levels in patients after conversion from darbepoetin alfa to once-monthly peginesatide. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: This open-label, multicenter study included 101 CKD patients, 52 of whom were receiving dialysis. The duration of the study was 24 weeks. The primary endpoint was the mean change in hemoglobin from baseline to the evaluation period (weeks 19-24). The study was conducted during the period from September 22, 2008 to December 24, 2009. RESULTS: The mean change among hemodialysis patients was -0.42 g/dl (95% confidence interval, -0.65 to -0.19) and the mean change among CKD nondialysis patients was 0.49 g/dl (95% confidence interval, 0.26-0.71). The percentages of patients who maintained hemoglobin levels within ±1.0 g/dl of baseline values were as follows: 80.0% for hemodialysis and 68.1% for nondialysis, and73.3% for hemodialysis and 68.1% for nondialysis within the target range of 10.0-12.0 g/dl. Few patients received red blood cell transfusions (hemodialysis, 5.8%; nondialysis, 2.0%). Seventy-nine patients experienced adverse events, the majority of which were mild or moderate in severity. There were 40 serious adverse events and 2 deaths reported. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, once-monthly peginesatide resulted in a slight decrease in mean hemoglobin levels in individuals on hemodialysis and a small increase in individuals with CKD who were not on dialysis.