Node leader: Kristoffer Haugarvoll
Kristoffer Haugarvoll, MD, PhD is principal investigator (PI) in the Bergen Dementia Research Group and a consultant neurologist at the Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital. Dr. Haugarvoll’s clinical expertise includes neurodegeneration, movement disorders, dementia, and neurogenetics. His main research focus is dementia and neurodegeneration in particular dementia related to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and the Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) spectrum.
Key node partner: Bettina Husebø
Bettina Husebø, MD, PhD is a professor and the head of the Centre for Elderly and Nursing Home Medicine (SEFAS) with 12 active researchers. Since 2019, she is also the head of innovation at the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care (IGS). Her research focus is on care with a special focus on dementia, palliative medicine and care, pain assessment, impact of pain on behavioural disturbances in patients with dementia, psychometrics and algesimetry, sensing technology and smart housing. She is also the leader for Neuro-SysMed’s Care Node. In 2023, she received an ERC Consolidator grant (5-D) and a Trond Mohn Centre for Complex Conditions and Ageing (CC.AGE).
Node activities
Motivated by the promising finding of NADreplenishment therapy in PD, the Dementia Node has initiated clinical treatment studies to assess the neuroprotective potential of NAD-supplementation in Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, they conduct state-of-the-art biomarker research aiming at identifying subtypes of individuals with dementia, including AD and DLB, and to develop clinically applicable biomarkers for stratifying the dementias according to underlying molecular patterns.
During 2023, the Dementia Node made key advances in their clinical research projects, which include one clinical trial and one prospective cohort study:
- The N-DOSE study is a phase II randomised, double blinded dose-optimisation trial of NR in AD. The primary objective is to determine the optimal biological dose of NR for AD, so that larger trials focusing on efficacy
can be designed. - The STRAT-COG initiative is a longitudinal populationbased cohort study aiming at stratifying individuals with dementia, such as AD and DLB, according
to underlying molecular patterns, and to develop biomarkers enabling patient stratification in clinical practice. The study is employing a comprehensive biomarker panel for dementia combining existing biomarkers for AD pathology with biomarkers for neuronal loss and α-synuclein pathology.
The Dementia Node is a partner in the ANeED study, a phase II trial testing ambroxol in DLB (PI: Arvid Rongve), and in the ongoing Dementia Disease Initiation (DDI) study (PI: Tormod Fladby).
Selected publications from 2023:
- Watne LO, Pollmann CT, Neerland BE, Quist-Paulsen E, Halaas NB, Idland AV, Hassel B, Henjum K, Knapskog AB, Frihagen F, Raeder J, Godø A, Ueland PM, McCann A, Figved W, Selbæk G, Zetterberg H, Fang EF, Myrstad M, Giil LM. Cerebrospinal fluid quinolinic acid is strongly associated with delirium and mortality
in hip-fracture patients. J Clin Invest. 2023 Jan 17;133(2):e163472. doi:10.1172/JCI163472.PMID: 36409557 - Helvik, AS., Bergh, S., Šaltytė Benth, J. et al. Pain and quality of life in nursing home residents with dementia after admission – a longitudinal study. BMC Health Serv Res 23, 1032 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-10041-5
- Puaschitz NGS, Jacobsen FF, Berge LI and Husebo BS. Access to, use of, and experiences with social alarms in home-living people with dementia: results from the LIVE@Home.Path trial. Front. Aging Neurosci. 2023, 15:1167616. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1167616