The development of disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer's disease is an urgent public health emergency. Recent failures have highlighted the significant challenges faced by drug-development programs. Longitudinal cohort studies are ideal for promoting understanding of this multifactorial, slowly progressive disease. In this section of the special edition, we review several important lessons from longitudinal cohort studies which should be considered in disease-modifying therapy development. In the final section, we introduce the clinical cohort of the Center for Neurodegeneration and Translational Neuroscience. This newly established longitudinal study aims to provide new insights into the neuroimaging and biological marker (biomarkers) correlates of cognitive decline in early Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease (PD).
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Disease-modifying therapy; Longitudinal cohort; Neuroscience; Parkinson's disease; clinical trials.