Joe Verghese, MBBS, MS: Bridging the Gap to Alzheimer Disease Prevention

"The population itself is growing older. It is essential that we conduct these studies, in terms of identifying new treatments, rigorously testing and throwing out treatments that don’t work.”

The ultimate goal for the treatment of Alzheimer disease, and numerous of other neurological disorders, is prevention. Although, achieving prevention takes time and is often a multi-step process that requires an immense understanding of the disease before reaching precision medicine aimed at clinical regression. Joe Verghese, MBBS, MS, director, Montefiore Einstein Center for the Aging Brain, feels as though every positive study is a step closer to prevention or treatment.

He was recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct 2 studies, 1 of which will focus on a pre-dementia condition called motoric cognitive risk (MCR) syndrome, and the other will look at the at-home use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) therapy. Both of the studies will focus on separate issues but could ultimately have lasting results for the same patient population.

Verghese stressed the clinical utility of MCR, stating it can easily be applied to patient populations and is derived from current mild cognitive impairment (MCI) criteria. In an interview with NeurologyLive, Verghese provides additional context on how these methods can be used as complimentary treatment approaches, and why they can push the needle closer to the ultimate goal of prevention.