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If you’re between 50 and 80 years old and want to help find new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine needs you.

There’s a study underway that will determine whether a low dose of an anti-seizure drug can treat parts of the brain that are overactive in people who are at risk for Alzheimer’s.

“This particular study is designed to answer the question: If we slow down that hyperactivity, does that prevent people from developing memory problems and from developing the precursor to Alzheimer’s disease?” said Arnold Bakker, Ph.D., the study director.

How the study works

The study requires five in-person visits to the Johns Hopkins East Baltimore campus. Anyone with normal cognitive function is welcome.

At the initial baseline visit, participants will take a few simple tests.

“We do paper-and-pencil testing to test cognition and specifically memory,” Bakker said. “People tolerate that very well.”

This is a randomized study, which means that participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups.

One group will take a daily dose of levetiracetam for two weeks, then wait a month before starting a placebo, or sugar pill, for two weeks.

The other group will start with the placebo, wait a month, and then take the study drug for two weeks.

Both groups will undergo two MRIs so researchers can see the effects of the drug, namely, a reduction in overactivity in the brain. (An MRI, which takes less than an hour, does not deliver radiation, unlike a CT scan or PET scan.) All participants will be compensated for their time.

“We’ve really tried to do this as minimally invasive as possible,” Bakker said. “People are really only on active treatments for two two-week periods.”

A way to help science

For those who have been affected by the devastation of Alzheimer’s, helping researchers find a way to prevent the disease is paramount.

“We’re at a very exciting time when it comes to Alzheimer’s research,” Bakker said. “We’ve had several treatments being approved for Alzheimer’s disease, and there are a lot of new studies that have become available over the last five to 10 years or so that help us understand what is happening in the brain on this trajectory from aging into Alzheimer’s disease.”

The biggest risk factor for Alzheimer’s is aging, but scientists still don’t understand why.

“We don’t exactly know why people transition from an aging process into a pathological process where these Alzheimer’s disease proteins start to accumulate in the brain,” Bakker said.

“This is one of the studies that is very important in trying to understand that transition and what the processes are that contribute to that conversion from a normal, successful aging trajectory into one where you start to develop symptoms” of Alzheimer’s disease, he said.

Whether or not you’re concerned about your own memory, this Hopkins study could help future generations.

“As the population starts to age, it’s really important that we understand these transition points” between normal aging and memory symptoms, Bakker said, “and this study is a direct attempt to understand that process.”

For more information, call (410) 502-4797 or email treataging@jh.edu.