# A Blood Test for Screening Into Alzheimer's Prevention Trials

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR · 2021 · $560,088

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's (A4) study (http://a4study.org/) is a ground-breaking
study designed prevent cognitive decline among cognitively normal older adults who are amyloid positive. If
successful, the A4 trial will demonstrate, for the first time, that it is possible to delay this devastating disease by
initiating treatments prior to clinical manifestation. Such success would engender an effort to make treatments
available globally. However, the only currently available means for screening older adults into potential trials
(or regularity approved therapy) for amyloid-removing medications are amyloid PET scans or lumbar punctures
(LPs), neither of which are viable options for large-scale screening. Here we propose to meet the objectives of
PAR-15-359 by leveraging existing biorepository samples from the A4 trial. The long-term goal of this work is
the establishment of a multi-tier neurodiagnostic approach for screening eligible older adults into clinical trials
(and clinical intervention) of anti-amyloid agents to slow and/or prevent AD progression.
The PIs are global leaders in blood-based biomarkers of AD. This project will leverage a substantial existing
infrastructure to address the following Specific Aims: Aim 1: Validate our AD blood screen as the first step in
screening cognitively normal older adults into prevention trials using anti-amyloid agents. Aim 2: Determine the
accuracy of neuronally derived exosomes (NDEs) for screening cognitively normal older adults into prevention
trials using anti-amyloid agents. Aim 3: Demonstrate the cost-benefit of a multi-tier screening process for
enrollment into prevention studies of AD.
The significance of the current proposal is the completion of the first-ever study of a blood-based Alzheimer's
screening test as the first-step in a multi-tier screening process for prevention trials. The availability of such a
process would increase access to both clinical trials and medications once FDA approved and provide a
previously utilized strategy for reimbursement approval from other diseases.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10172816
- **Project number:** 5R01AG058252-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** Sid E O'Bryant
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $560,088
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-15 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10172816

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10172816, A Blood Test for Screening Into Alzheimer's Prevention Trials (5R01AG058252-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10172816. Licensed CC0.

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