Next Era of Alzheimer’s Care Will be Defined by Precision Prevention

Results from the U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk (U.S. POINTER) released today strengthen the case for precision prevention, a strategy set to revolutionize Alzheimer’s care by combining lifestyle changes with targeted therapeutics based on individual risk factors.

“The future lies in precision prevention,” said Dr. Howard Fillit, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. “We have seen this model succeed in cancer and heart disease, and with a growing body of evidence showing neither lifestyle nor drugs can stop Alzheimer’s alone, now is the time to double down on studying the two in combination, which will lay the path for precision medicine.”

The ADDF is driving a new era of clinical trials that look at lifestyle and therapeutic interventions in tandem, including Dr. Miia Kivipelto’s MET-FINGER study, which has created a blueprint for combination therapy studies going forward.

The U.S. POINTER study, released during the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) and published simultaneously in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found multidomain lifestyle interventions supported cognitive health in aging populations. This builds on previous findings from Dr. Miia Kivipelto’s original FINGER trial, the first to show the critical role of lifestyle changes in preventing dementia.

U.S. POINTER showed its structured high-intensity lifestyle interventions benefitted participants regardless of their APOE4 carrier status, a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. This contrasts findings from the FINGER study, which showed benefit especially in carriers of APOE4, and further highlights the wide-reaching impacts of lifestyle changes.

“The U.S. POINTER results validate the findings of the FINGER study in a more diverse U.S. population,” said Dr. Kivipelto. “This is yet another proof point that lifestyle can have a tremendous impact on the brain. By developing personalized scientific approaches to match each patient’s unique biomarker profile with a combined drug and prevention plan, we are redefining how we treat and prevent Alzheimer’s.”