Publication details

ADAMANT: a placebo-controlled randomized phase 2 study of AADvac1, an active immunotherapy against pathological tau in Alzheimer’s disease

Authors	NOVAK Petr KOVACECH Branislav KATINA Stanislav SCHMIDT Reinhold SCHELTENS Philip KONTSEKOVA Eva ROPELE Stefan FIALOVA Lubica KRAMBERGER Milica PAULENKA-IVANOVOVA Natalia SMISEK Miroslav HANES Jozef STEVENS Eva KOVAC Andrej SUTOVSKY Stanislav PARRAK Vojtech KOSON Peter PRCINA Michal GALBA Jaroslav CENTE Martin HROMADKA Tomas FILIPCIK Peter PIESTANSKY Juraj SAMCOVA Maria PRENN-GOLOGRANC Carmen SIVAK Roman FROELICH Lutz FRESSER Michal RAKUSA Martin HARRISON John HORT Jakub OTTO Markus TOSUN Duygu ONDRUS Matej WINBLAD Bengt NOVAK Michal ZILKA Norbert
Year of publication	2021
Type	Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source	Nature Aging
Citation
Web	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00070-2
Doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00070-2
Keywords	Alzheimer's disease; Drug discovery
Description	Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology is partly characterized by accumulation of aberrant forms of tau protein. Here we report the results of ADAMANT, a 24-month double-blinded, parallel-arm, randomized phase 2 multicenter placebo-controlled trial of AADvac1, an active peptide vaccine designed to target pathological tau in AD (EudraCT 2015-000630-30). Eleven doses of AADvac1 were administered to patients with mild AD dementia at 40?µg per dose over the course of the trial. The primary objective was to evaluate the safety and tolerability of long-term AADvac1 treatment. The secondary objectives were to evaluate immunogenicity and efficacy of AADvac1 treatment in slowing cognitive and functional decline. A total of 196 patients were randomized 3:2 between AADvac1 and placebo. AADvac1 was safe and well tolerated (AADvac1 n?=?117, placebo n?=?79; serious adverse events observed in 17.1% of AADvac1-treated individuals and 24.1% of placebo-treated individuals; adverse events observed in 84.6% of AADvac1-treated individuals and 81.0% of placebo-treated individuals). The vaccine induced high levels of IgG antibodies. No significant effects were found in cognitive and functional tests on the whole study sample (Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of the Boxes scale adjusted mean point difference -0.360 (95% CI -1.306, 0.589)), custom cognitive battery adjusted mean z-score difference of 0.0008 (95% CI -0.169, 0.172). We also present results from exploratory and post hoc analyses looking at relevant biomarkers and clinical outcomes in specific subgroups. Our results show that AADvac1 is safe and immunogenic, but larger stratified studies are needed to better evaluate its potential clinical efficacy and impact on disease biomarkers.