Identification of heterogeneity in Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials using computational modelling

Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia, which is becoming a global pandemic for the world's ageing population, and currently affects 55 million people worldwide and will nearly triple by 2050 (ref: WHO). Alzheimer's disease is devastating for patients, their families and carers, and the economy. Decades of experimental research into novel treatments have produced many new very promising drugs but none have been unequivocally proven to work in clinical trials.

Our computational research has revealed previously hidden subtypes and stages of Alzheimer's disease progression. We believe that clinical trials should take this information into account when recruiting patients because it is likely that any given drug won't work on all subtypes, nor at all stages of the disease. Here we propose to test this idea in data from a completed clinical trial known as TOMMORROW. If our idea works, we can then contribute to the success of future clinical trials to finding treatments for this devastating disease.