The ISAP Study led in collaboration between the Diabetes Trial Unit and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and Novo Nordisk will examine whether semaglutide, a tablet used to treat diabetes, can change the course of the earliest changes that happen in the brains of people at risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia. The trial will aim to recruit 88 volunteers currently living without dementia from five clinical sites in the UK: Oxford, Imperial College London, University College London, Exeter, and Bristol. Participants will have a PET head scan to check levels of amyloid protein in their brains. This new study is at the forefront of research that tests the concept that the long ‘preclinical’ stafe of dementia, that is, the 10-20 years period during which the condition develops, but people do not have symptoms, it is a window of opportunity to interfere with the disease process and delay or even prevent dementia.
Trial participants who have high amyloid protein levels in their brains will have further PET head scans to determine levels of protein. These scans will also check for tau protein, which is thought to damage nerves and to estimate levels of inflammation in the brain.
