As of 2016, there were 402,000 Canadians living with dementia (excluding Saskatchewan) and approximately 76,000 new cases of dementia are diagnosed each year. Anticipating the growing number of lives that will be affected by dementia calls for immediate and dramatic improvements in prevention and treatment strategies, not to mention the quality of care and services provided in clinical settings and within broader communities.
To this end, the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA) was established in 2014 as part of Canada’s commitment to the 38th G8 Summit. The CCNA leverages Canadian strengths in multidisciplinary research, takes collaborative team-based approaches to scientific progress, and strikes a balance between research on care and cure.
On June 17, 2019 the CCNA’s main partner – the Canadian Institutes of Health Research – announced its renewal for a second phase (from 2019-2024). The scientific leadership and additional partner organizations will continue to support 19 national teams of researchers in advancing the science on neurodegenerative diseases, including new projects focused on sleep and dementia. Researchers will also benefit from programs that will build their capacity in engaging people living with dementia in research; exploring Indigenous research topics and healthcare issues; and conducting research on special topics related to women, gender, sex, and dementia. Canada is poised to become a leader in dementia prevention through the new platform, CAN-THUMBS UP. The infrastructure and master protocol being created for this platform will enable researchers to work on goals that align with international prevention initiatives, as they test combination therapies, including physical activity, cognitive training, and diet on individuals who are at higher risk of developing dementia as they age.
It is important to note that the majority of the CCNA’s research teams are testing their hypotheses through its signature study, COMPASS-ND, where they harness national platforms and cohorts of research participants to share data and disseminate results to the public, clinicians, and policymakers.
By the end of May 2020, 1650 Canadians between the ages of 50 and 90 – who are living with, or are at risk of developing, dementia – will be enrolled in COMPASS-ND through the CCNA’s 30 testing sites across Canada.
Up to now, most studies of age-related cognitive decline have focused on specific types of dementia in isolation, the so-called “pure cases.” Yet, most of the patients that clinicians see do not have pure dementia. They have more than one brain pathology, such as Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, and many are frail and have other illnesses, such as heart, lung or kidney diseases.
“What we are trying to do is to gather extensive data – physical and biological, brain imaging, social, psychological, and genetic information – from people with memory loss and dementia in the real world, not stringently selected to fit into a drug study. This information will allow dozens of CCNA researchers to answer specific and important questions about a host of issues concerning these diseases and may produce transformative advances leading to better care and treatment,” says Howard Chertkow, Scientific Director of the CCNA.
From this foundation, the CCNA’s researchers can begin to solve the puzzle within each person: to calculate the independent impacts of different pathologies alone, in combination, and their combined outcomes. Doing so will help in diagnosing, understanding, and working to prevent the onset of dementia in all its forms.
This holistic approach is consistent with the 2018 InterAcademy Partnership’s position paper on dementia and the 2018 World Alzheimer Report, The state of the art of dementia research: New Frontiers. The latter report, released by Alzheimer’s Disease International, looks at a broad cross-section of research areas, including basic science; diagnosis; drug discovery; risk reduction; and epidemiology.
According to Dr. Chertkow, “this is indeed a critical decade for progress in neurodegenerative diseases. We believe that using the infrastructure and teams created within the CCNA, we can make meaningful progress in treating and preventing dementia and improving the quality of life of people with illnesses causing dementia in Canada.”