Thursday, April 3, 2025
4/3/2025
Adult Changes in Thought - Biorepository - SUMMARY This revision to the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) U19 Program adds a new aim (Aim 3) to enrich the ACT Program by establishing a blood-based biorepository. The parent U19 award transformed ACT from a U01 to a U19 program, modernizing and expanding ACT’s prospective cohort study to achieve advances in scientific understanding of cognitive and brain health among older adults. ACT is set in a healthcare delivery system. It enrolls dementia-free older adults and identifies incident cases of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), following consenting participants to autopsy. The Program’s overarching goal is to identify risk factors across the life course that provide potential intervention targets for preserving cognition and preventing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). The Overall Specific Aims are: Aim 1. Expand ACT cohort enrollment from 2,000 to 3,000 participants with emphasis on increasing racial/ethnic diversity and deep phenotyping of life course risk factors, cognitive and physical functioning, and outcomes including neuroimaging and neuropathology based ADRD outcomes. The program has 6 Cores: A, Administrative; B, Clinical; C, Life Course; D, Neuropathology; E, Neuroimaging; F, Data and Analysis. These Cores will work together to further enhance the value of ACT’s resources, enabling the ACT study to continue to be the foundation for an extraordinary array of science. ACT has achieved a completeness of follow-up index of 94.5% and has observed > 56,000 person-years of follow-up. ACT has identified >1,300 incident dementia cases and >1,000 incident Alzheimer’s cases. The study has completed 1000 autopsies and will surpass 1,100 autopsies this cycle. Additionally, >1000 ACT participants have one MRI scan, and ≥ 500 participants have ≥ 2 scans, with funding in place to scan more than 200 additional participants. Aim 2. Support key Projects studying the spectrum of healthy functioning to ADRD in older adults. The three Projects center around 24- hour cycle physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep patterns (Project 1), the implications of cognitively defined Alzheimer’s disease subgroups (Project 2), and mechanisms underlying neural protection and toxicity of anticholinergic drugs and antihypertensive drugs (Project 3). Aim 3. (new to this revision): Establish a fit-for- purpose blood-based biorepository using best practices for ADRD research to measure current state-of-the-art plasma ADRD biomarkers and share biospecimens to enable future proteomic and transcriptomic research. Aim 4 Expand and improve ACT’s dissemination of exceptional resources to the research community guided by NIA’s adopted FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reproducible) principles. ACT has proven to be an exceptional resource to the research community, providing data and specimens to research colleagues locally, across the country, and around the world, and provides mentorship to junior investigators.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).