Levetiracetam for Alzheimer's Disease-Associated Network Hyperexcitability

Phase 2

Completed

Conditions: Alzheimer's Disease

Interventions: Drug: levetiracetam

Registration Number: NCT02002819

Lead Sponsor: University of Minnesota

Brief Summary: Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) can have seizures in addition to losing their memory and other mental functions (referred to as cognitive functions). The seizures, and other examples of overactive electrical activity in the brain that is not noticeable, contribute to the loss of cognitive function. Studies in animal models of AD suggest that a drug that prevents seizures called levetiracetam may reduce neuronal over-excitation and improve cognition. Based on this evidence, the investigators propose to determine if levetiracetam can be used to treat patients with AD. The investigators developed novel instruments for this population that will also be used in future large-scale clinical trials.

The current study will last for 12 weeks and will involve people with AD. Participants will be initially examined with an overnight brain wave study to assess for silent epileptic (seizure-like) activity. Presence of epileptic activity on the screening exam is not required to enter the trial. Participants will then be assigned to groups in a randomized manner. One group will receive levetiracetam for 4 weeks, then no drug for 4 weeks, and then placebo for 4 weeks. For another group, the order of treatments will be reversed. The cognitive abilities of participants will be retested every 4 weeks and compared to those at the beginning. The cognitive tests include a virtual-reality navigation test of memory and computerized tests of mental flexibility and problem solving. The participants will be monitored with a magnetoencephalogram (MEG) with simultaneous EEG (M/EEG) at each visit. M/EEG is a highly effective non-invasive method for identifying brain regions of epileptic activity. The investigators will need to recruit 36 randomized participants to test the study hypotheses. This study will take place at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the University of Minnesota.

Detailed Description: For a more detailed explanation of the study and what our results were, please read our publication at https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2784539

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 34

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: CROSSOVER

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Levetiracetam-Placebo	levetiracetam	This group receives levetiracetam for 4 weeks twice daily, then has a break where no treatment is given for 4 weeks, and then receives placebo for 4 weeks.
Placebo-Levetiracetam	levetiracetam	This group receives placebo for 4 weeks twice daily, then has a break where no treatment is given for 4 weeks, and then receives levetiracetam for 4 weeks.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Changes in Executive Function as Measured by the NIH EXAMINER Computer Battery	Difference between weeks 0-4 (Baseline) and weeks 8-12 (Treatment)	Changes in executive function were measured using the NIH EXAMINER, a 1-hour computer-based battery of various executive function tasks. The subject's performance after the study treatment will be compared with results from a baseline assessment done before the study treatment, using statistical tests to assess whether there was any significant change. The Examiner assessment consists of the following scales: antisaccade , set shifting , flanker task, dot counting, spatial 1-back, category fluency, and letter fluency. Scores for this task have an indefinite range. Higher scores however do indicate better performance. Scores for this scale were generated using item response theory. For this study, scores with SEs greater than 0.55 were classified as unreliable and excluded from analysis. Composite scores from 2 participants were excluded on this basis.The EXAMINER ranges for the participants in the study were -2.59 to 1.33.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Changes in Stroop Interference Naming	Difference between weeks 0-4 (Baseline) and weeks 8-12 (Treatment)	Stroop Test - The Stroop Test (Stroop 1935) will be used to assess executive functions including selective attention, cognitive flexibility and processing speed. Subtasks include Stroop color naming and Stroop interference naming, and each subtask is restricted to 1 minute. The minimum score is 0 and the maximum score is 126. The higher the score the better a participant does.
Changes in ADAS-cog	Difference between weeks 0-4 (Baseline) and weeks 8-12 (Treatment)	Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-cog) - The ADAS-cog rating instrument (Rosen et al. 1984) will be used to evaluate the global cognitive functioning. The ADAS-cog is a 70-point scale that includes an assessment of verbal memory, language, orientation, reasoning, and praxis.The score is derived from adding point values from each of its subsections. The higher your score on the ADAS-cog, the better you do.
Changes in Behavior and Level of Disability - ADCS-ADL	Difference between weeks 0-4 (Baseline) and weeks 8-12 (Treatment)	Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study Activities of Daily Living Scale (ADCS-ADL) - The ADCS-ADL rating instrument (Galasko et al. 1997) will be used to evaluate functional capacity. The ADCS-ADL is a caregiver rated questionnaire. Scores on the 24-item ADCS-ADL range from 0 to 78. A higher score indicates less severity while a lower score indicates greater severity.
Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (CDR-SOB)	Difference between weeks 0-4 (Baseline) and weeks 8-12 (Treatment)	Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (CDR-SOB) - The CDR will be used as a global measure of dementia severity (Morris 1993). The CDR consists of questions addressed to the caregiver/informant. The lowest score one can receive is a 0 and the highest is a 3. Score is measured by getting the mean of the individual scores in each category. Lower scores equate to less dementia severity.
Changes in Behavior and Level of Disability - ADCS-CGIC	Difference between weeks 0-4 (Baseline) and weeks 8-12 (Treatment)	ADCS-Clinical Global Impression of Change (ADCS-CGIC) - The ADCS-CGIC is a seven-point scale that gives a global rating of change from baseline (Schneider et al. 1997). The baseline and follow up assessments are based on interviews with the subject and the informant. The ADCS-CGIC is a clinician-rated measure of: global severity at baseline scored from 1 (normal, not at all ill) to 7 (among the most extremely ill patients); and global change at follow-up scored from 1 (marked improvement) to 7 (marked worsening), where 4 indicates no change.
Changes in Behavior and Level of Disability - Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI)	Difference between weeks 0-4 (Baseline) and weeks 8-12 (Treatment)	Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) - The NPI (Cummings et al. 1994) will be used to evaluate the severity of behavioral symptoms. The severity scale has scores ranging from 1 to 3 points (1=mild; 2=moderate; and 3=severe) and the scale for assessing caregiver distress has scores ranging from 0 to 5 points (0=no distress; 1=minimal distress; 2=mild distress; 3=moderate distress; 4=severe distress; and 5=extreme distress).
Changes in Epileptiform Events	Difference between weeks 0-4 (Baseline) and weeks 8-12 (Treatment)	Epileptiform activity will be measured using a 1-hr resting magnetoencephalogram/electroencephalogram (M/EEG). M/EEG can detect abnormal epileptiform findings called "spikes". The M/EEG will be read by an epileptologist with specialized training to assess whether there are any spikes. If spikes are observed during the M/EEG they will be counted to determine their frequency (e.g., 5 spikes per 1 hour recording). The frequency of spikes will then be compared to baseline values from before beginning the study treatment, using statistical tests to determine if the frequency changed with treatment.