Burke Neurological Institute Launches Alzheimer’s Study

The Burke Neurological Institute (BNI) in White Plains is testing a completely different approach to stopping Alzheimer’s disease.

BNI, a BCW member and an affiliation of Weill Cornell Medicine, in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) at University of California San Diego and Columbia University Irving Medical Center, have launched a national clinical trial to investigate the therapeutic potential of a form of benfotiamine, a synthetic version of vitamin B1 (thiamine), as a treatment for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

“The approach of using benfotiamine in patients with mild Alzheimer’s is very promising,” said BCW board member Rajiv Ratan, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Director at Burke Neurological Institute, who announced the study on Monday. “This clinical trial builds on years of hard work to address a disease that affects millions of patients “

The BenfoTeam trial will occur at 50 sites across the U.S. to evaluate the effects of benfotiamine on cognitive function and whether high doses benefit people age 50 to 89 with mild AD and MCI.

Benfotiamine is a synthetic drug which can increase blood thiamine up to 100 times the normal level. The brain tissue in people with AD shows a thiamine deficiency, even with a sufficient supply of thiamine in a person’s blood.

The trial is investigating whether the delivery of thiamine via drug will increase the amount of thiamine getting to the brain and slow cognitive decline in people with early AD. Currently, 5.8 million Americans are living with AD with this number projected to rise to nearly 14 million people by 2050.

Gary E. Gibson, Ph.D., Professor of Neurosciences at BNI, has spent decades conducting studies to better understand Alzheimer’s disease and how to develop new therapies to treat the disease.

“In people with Alzheimer’s disease, reductions in brain glucose utilization track closely with cognitive decline and we already know that thiamine deficiencies can cause dementia,” said Gibson, who is also a Professor of Neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine. “We think people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease may not be getting enough thiamine delivered to the brain.”

Participation in the trial for each patient will last 18 months (plus screening) and enrollment is planned for 406 participants. For more information about the trial and to find a study site, visit benfoteam.org.