Effects of Doxycycline and Rifampicin on Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease in the Cerebrospinal Fluid

March 15, 2018 updated by: Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation

Effects of Treatment With Doxycycline and Rifampicin on Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease in the Cerebrospinal Fluid

This study will determine if biomarkers found in the cerebrospinal fluid of people with Alzheimer's disease, are affected by treatment with two common antibiotics, doxycycline and rifampicin, suggesting a disease-modifying effect of those treatments.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Diagnostic markers in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) have become a rapidly growing research field. Potential disease-modifying drugs like the antibiotics rifampicin and doxycycline, highlight the need of improved diagnostic accuracy and offer the potential to examine how these treatments may actually exert their clinical effects.

Cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers (the 42 amino acid form of β-amyloid (Aβ), total tau, and phosphorylated tau) have been evaluated in scientific studies. Tau proteins are considered "state" markers, whereas Aβ(1-42) proteins can be used as "stage" markers. These CSF markers have high sensitivity to differentiate early AD from normal aging, depression, alcohol dementia and Parkinson's disease. When these biomarkers are used in combination with a medical history, clinical examination, laboratory tests and brain imaging, the diagnostic accuracy is improved.

Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) dysregulation is thought to contribute to a variety of pathological conditions such as arthritis, cancer, atherosclerosis, aneurysms, nephritis, tissue ulcers, and fibrosis. In addition, MMP involvement has been demonstrated in the pathogenesis of a variety of CNS disorders, including bacterial and viral disorders, stroke, multiple sclerosis, ALS, and AD.

There is an inflammatory response in AD. This includes complement activation, elevated C-reactive protein (CRP), elevated pro-inflammatory cytokines (including IL-1-β, IL-6, TNF-α, TGF-β, S100-β), chemokine alterations (IL-8, MIP-1-α, MIP-1-β, MCP-1), and microglial.

We are measuring the biochemical markers of Aβ(1-40) and Aβ(1-42), P-tau and T-tau, matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-2, MMP-9), pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1beta, TNF-alpha), and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4 and IL-10) at the start and one year after treatment in the multi-centered, randomized, controlled, trial of disease-modifying drugs rifampicin and/or and doxycycline to slow the progress of Alzheimer's disease by affecting the production of these biomarkers.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

100

Phase

  • Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Ontario
      • Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8M1W9
        • St.Peter's Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

46 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Male or female
  • Age greater than or equal to 50 years
  • Diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease by NINCDS-ADRDA criteria
  • Standardized Mini-Mental State Examination score 14-26 inclusive
  • A caregiver who consents to monitor study medications, report on patient function, bring the patient to visits, etc.
  • Vision, hearing, language ability sufficient to complete standardized testing in English.
  • Patient consents (or legal representative consents for patient)
  • Generally stable level of health where patient may be reasonably expected to complete a 1 year trial

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Other neurodegenerative diseases such as Lewy body or Parkinson's
  • Cognitive impairment due to: acute trauma, subdural hematoma, hypoxic cerebral damage, B12 deficiency, infections such as AIDS or meningitis, cerebral neoplasia, endocrine deficiencies, mental retardation
  • Significant cerebrovascular disease or multi-infarct dementia
  • Intra-cranial pathology such as tumour
  • Co-existing medical conditions such as epilepsy, major psychiatric conditions, depression (Cornell Depression in Dementia Scale score of 12 or more), significant liver, kidney, lung, metabolic or endocrine diseases
  • Clinically significant cardiac disease such as uncontrolled angina or hypertension
  • Anti-dementia treatments other than donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine, memantine
  • Enrollment in trials with other investigational drugs
  • Antibiotic use more than one month in the last six months
  • Allergy to doxycycline or rifampicin

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
  • Masking: Quadruple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1 AD combined doxycycline + rifampin
Doxycycline 100 mg b.i.d. plus rifampin 300 mg o.d. for 12 months.
capsule, 100 mg, b.i.d., daily for 1 year
capsule, 300mg, o.d., daily for 11 months (administration starts in 2nd month of trial)
Other Names:
  • Rifadin
  • Rofact
Experimental: 2 AD Doxycycline only
Doxycycline 100 mg b.i.d. plus placebo matched to rifampin o.d. for 12 months.
capsule, 100 mg, b.i.d., daily for 1 year
Rifampin-matched - red capsule, o.d., daily for 11 months starting at month 2.
Experimental: 3 Rifampin only
Rifampin 300 mg o.d. plus placebo matched to doxycycline b.i.d. for 12 months.
capsule, 300mg, o.d., daily for 11 months (administration starts in 2nd month of trial)
Other Names:
  • Rifadin
  • Rofact
Doxycycline-matched - blue capsule, b.i.d.,daily for 12 months
Placebo Comparator: 4 Double Placebo
Placebo matched to Doxycycline b.i.d. plus placebo matched to rifampin o.d. for 12 months.
Rifampin-matched - red capsule, o.d., daily for 11 months starting at month 2.
Doxycycline-matched - blue capsule, b.i.d.,daily for 12 months

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Clinical Dementia Rating scale
Time Frame: 12 months
12 months
Standardized Alzheimer's disease Assessment Scale -cognitive subscale
Time Frame: 12 months
12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Collaborators

Investigators

  • Study Chair: William Molloy, MB, FRCPC, McMaster University
  • Principal Investigator: Tricia KW Woo, MD, FRCPC, McMaster University
  • Principal Investigator: David D Cowan, MD, FRCPC, McMaster University
  • Principal Investigator: Brandon M Kucher, PhD, McMaster University
  • Principal Investigator: Alwin Cunje, MD, PhD, University of Ottawa
  • Principal Investigator: Tim I Standish, MA, McMaster University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

February 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 20, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 21, 2007

First Posted (Estimate)

February 23, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 19, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 15, 2018

Last Verified

March 1, 2017

More Information

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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