Neurodegenerative Diseases
Our Vision
We aim to help the outlook for individuals living with major neurodegenerative diseases.
Amongst the most prevalent conditions worldwide are dementia (50 million) and Parkinson's disease (7-8 million). Disorders such as progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) and motor neuron disease (MND), also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), are less common (3 million in total) but have major societal and individual impact.
Over 1 million people are living with neurodegenerative disease in the UK alone. At present, there are partial symptomatic treatments available for some symptoms, but few, if any, effective disease-modifying therapies to delay or slow the disease process and certainly none that can lead to reversal.
We will encourage and support the development, running and reporting of multi-arm multi-stage (MAMS) platform trials in neurodegenerative conditions. We will carry out research in four major neurodegenerative diseases: MND, progressive MS, Parkinson’s disease, and, ultimately, dementia.
Our Collaborators
We, under a programme of activity led by the ACORD collaboration, will bring together expertise in the field, linking organisations and researchers.
Selected publications
- Smarter adaptive platform clinical trials in neurology: a showcase for UK innovation | Brain | Oxford Academic (oup.com)
- Designing Multi-arm Multistage Adaptive Trials for Neuroprotection in Progressive Multiple Sclerosis
- Trials for neurodegenerative diseases: time to innovate
- Clinical trials in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a systematic review and perspective
- Motor Neuron Disease Systematic Multi-Arm Adaptive Randomised Trial (MND-SMART): a multi-arm, multi-stage, adaptive, platform, phase III randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of repurposed drugs in motor neuron disease
Our studies in neurodegenerative diseases
ACORD collaboration
A collaboration of groups developing, running and reporting multi-arm multi-stage trials in neurodegenerative diseases
MND-SMART
The MND-SMART trial is an innovative, currently recruiting UK clinical trial testing two potential new treatments for Motor Neuron Disease (MND)
OCTOPUS
The OCTOPUS trial in Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (MS); the first ever multi-arm, multi-stage trial for progressive MS
EJS ACT-PD
The EJS ACT-PD trial, a multi-arm multi-stage platform for evaluating new therapies for Parkinson’s Disease (PD)