The Trial-Ready Cohort for Preclinical/Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease (TRC-PAD) Project: An Overview

The Trial-Ready Cohort for Preclinical/prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease (TRC-PAD) project is a collaborative effort to establish an efficient mechanism for recruiting participants into very early stage Alzheimer’s disease trials. Clinically normal and mildly symptomatic individuals are followed longitudinally in a web-based component called the Alzheimer’s Prevention Trial Webstudy (APT Webstudy), with quarterly assessment of cognition and subjective concerns. The Webstudy data is used to predict the likelihood of brain amyloid elevation; individuals at relatively high risk are invited for in-person assessment in the TRC screeing phase, during which a cognitive battery is administered and Apolipoprotein E genotype is obtained followed by reassessment of risk of amyloid elevation. After an initial validation study, plasma amyloid peptide ratios will be included in this risk assessment. Based on this second risk calculation, individuals may have amyloid testing by PET scan or lumbar puncture, with those potentially eligible for trials followed in the TRC, while the rest are invited to remain in the APT Webstudy. To date, over 30,000 individuals have participated in the Webstudy; enrollment in the TRC is in its early stage.