Sleep Trial to Prevent Alzheimer's Disease

Overview

The purpose of this study is to determine if treatment with the sleep aid suvorexant can decrease the rate of amyloid-β (Aβ) accumulation in the brain.

Detailed description

This study will investigate if long-term treatment with suvorexant will slow amyloid-β accumulation in the brain. Amyloid-β is a protein involved in the disease process leading to Alzheimer's disease. This study will evaluate if suvorexant can decrease the amount of amyloid-beta detected by plasma pT217/T217.

Interventions

• Drug Suvorexant 20 mg
  Suvorexant 20mg will be taken nightly for 24 months.
• Drug Placebo
  Placebo will be taken nightly for 24 months.

Primary outcome measures

• Change from baseline in Amyloid-β accumulation measured by plasma pT217/T217 in participants treated with 20 mg suvorexant compared to placebo [Time frame: 18-24 months]

Secondary outcome measures (11)

• Change in plasma Amyloid-β compared to placebo [Time frame: 18-24 months]
• Change in CSF Amyloid-β compared to placebo [Time frame: 18-24 months]
• Change in plasma tau compared to placebo [Time frame: 18-24 months]
• Change in CSF tau compared to placebo [Time frame: 18-24 months]
• Change in plasma p-tau compared to placebo [Time frame: 18-24 months]
• Change in CSF p-tau compared to placebo [Time frame: 18-24 months]
• Change in cognitive performance compared to placebo [Time frame: 18-24 months]
• Change in transcriptomics compared to placebo [Time frame: 18-24 months]
• Change in metabolomics compared to placebo [Time frame: 18-24 months]
• Change in proteomics compared to placebo [Time frame: 18-24 months]
• Change in gut microbiome compared to placebo [Time frame: 18-24 months]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Male or female.
• Any race or ethnicity.
• Participants must be age ≥65 years and able to sign informed consent.
• Global Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0.
• Willing and able to undergo study procedures.

Exclusion criteria

• History of reported symptoms suggestive of restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy or other central disorder of hypersomnolence, or parasomnia
• STOP-Bang score >6 for participants without PAP
• Untreated OSA with AHI ≥15 on home sleep test
• Treated sleep apnea with PAP non-compliance

• PAP compliance is defined as >= 4 hours per night >70% of the nights
• Plasma A-beta and tau test with a plasma p-tau 217% ≤ 1.19
• Stroke.
• Chronic kidney disease defined as patients with markers of kidney damage or eGFR of < 45 ml/min/1.73m2.
• Hepatic impairment defined as AST and/or ALT > 2x upper limit of normal (normal limits AST: 11-47 IU/L, ALT: 6-53 IU/L).
• HIV/AIDS.
• History of substance abuse or alcohol abuse in the proceeding 6 months.
• Regular alcohol consumption 3 or more days a week over the last 6 months. Regular alcohol consumption is defined as having more than 2 alcoholic beverages within 3 hours of bedtime. Participants that agree to reduce alcohol consumption during the study may not be excluded.
• History of presence of any clinically significant medical condition, behavioral or psychiatric disorder, or surgical history based on medical record or participant report that could affect the safety of the participant or interfere with study assessments or in the judgement of the Principal-Investigator (PI) if participant is not a good candidate.
• Has any medical condition that, in the PI's opinion, could increase risk to the participant, limit the participant's ability to tolerate the research procedures, or interfere with the collection/analysis of the data. Potential medical conditions that will be exclusionary at the PI's discretion:

• Cardiovascular disease requiring medication except for controlled hypertension.
• Pulmonary disease.
• Type I diabetes.
• Neurologic or psychiatric disorder requiring medication.
• Tobacco use.
• Use of sedating medications.
• Use of medications that interact with suvorexant (if cannot be discontinued)
• Abnormal safety labs
• History of current suicidal ideations.
• Currently pregnant or breast-feeding.
• In the opinion of the PI, the participant should be excluded due to an abnormal physical examination.
• Must not have participated in any clinical trial involving a study drug or device within the 30-days prior to study enrollment.
• Must not participate in another drug or device study prior to the end of this study participation.

Exclusion criteria for optional lumbar punctures

-• Contraindication to lumbar puncture (anticoagulants; bleeding disorder; allergy to lidocaine or disinfectant; prior central nervous system or lower back surgery).

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: Yes

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Quadruple blind

Primary purpose

Prevention

Study locations

United States · 1 center

• Washington University School of Medicine — St Louis

Publications

• Noh MY, Kwon HS, Kwon MS, Nahm M, Jin HK, Bae JS, Kim SH. Biomarkers and therapeutic strategies targeting microglia in neurodegenerative diseases: current status and future directions. Mol Neurodegener. 2025 Jul 10;20(1):82. doi: 10.1186/s13024-025-00867-4. PMID 40640892

Identifiers

NCT: NCT04629547 · 202008007

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗