PIA Overview:
Down Syndrome and Alzheimer's Disease

Chair: Elliott Mufson

Individuals with Down syndrome develop Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathology with near conformity in their 4th to 5th decade, and are at a much higher risk of developing AD dementia than the general population. Not all research sites have access to DS individuals between the ages of 25 and 40; the years when most likely AD neuropathology develops. Further, DS is a fairly uncommon genetic abnormality, with approximately one in every 700 births; this means that a multi-site collaborative team in terms of clinical trials and neuropathology repositories is more likely to yield breakthrough results than individual efforts. The intention of the Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease (DS-AD) PIA is to meet two times per year as a group, in order to form a national tissue repository, and also to set up a data sharing network and work with industry to develop treatment targets and biomarkers for DS-AD.

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