Gregg S. Day, M.D.

The purpose of this study is to define the effectiveness and safety of Inebilizumab in reducing the level of disability in patients with NMDAR encephalitis as measured by modified Rankin score (mRS).

There are currently no medicinal products approved for the treatment of anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis, a rare disease. NMDAR encephalitis is a life‑threatening, antibody-mediated autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system. Standard of care includes high-dose corticosteroids AND either intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) OR plasmapheresis. However, as many as 47% of patients may fail to respond to initial treatment at 4 weeks, thus, there is a high unmet medical need for more effective therapies. 

The overall purpose of this research is to understand how ADAD develops in order to eventually provide treatments for this disorder. Each biological child of a person with an ADAD mutation has a 50% risk of inheriting the mutation, and thus of developing ADAD. This study will develop a registry of families with a known ADAD mutation and will collect, analyze and bank data, tissue, and brain images from the members who participate in the DIAN research study. The data and tissue collected are available to all qualified researchers who wish to determine what changes occur before and after ADAD symptoms start. This understanding may lead to better tests and treatments for ADAD.

The purpose of this study is to advance the study of normal and pathological aging in a representative cohort of participants within Jacksonville and surrounding area, including participants from people groups who are often underrepresented in research studies. These goals will be accomplished by obtaining comprehensive measures of cognitive and physical health participants, paired with established and non-invasive blood-based biomarkers. Access to non-invasive measures of common age-related pathology (e.g., Alzheimer and cerebrovascular disease) would disproportionately benefit Black and Hispanic community members who are routinely under-represented in biomarker-based studies requiring PET neuroimaging or cerebrospinal fluid sampling.

This study will conduct assessment of patients with rapidly progressive dementia (RPD) to review clinical information and perform additional assessments to better understand the disease. Cognitive impairment and function will be assessed concurrent with clinical assessments using validated measures applied in the assessment and monitoring of patients with age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Clinical information will be combined with interval blood/serum, genetic (DNA, analyses of associated measures of transcription factors and proteins, with integration of induced pluripotent stem cell models), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and neuroimaging biomarkers when available. The ability of these novel measures to predict outcomes and clinical / pathological diagnoses will be prospectively considered. When available, clinical results from additional investigations (i.e., electroencephalograms, serum/CSF measures, additional imaging measures) obtained as a part of routine clinical assessment will also be reviewed and considered.

The purpose of this study is to define the effectiveness and safety of Inebilizumab in reducing the level of disability in patients with NMDAR encephalitis as measured by modified Rankin score (mRS).

There are currently no medicinal products approved for the treatment of anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis, a rare disease. NMDAR encephalitis is a life‑threatening, antibody-mediated autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system. Standard of care includes high-dose corticosteroids AND either intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) OR plasmapheresis. However, as many as 47% of patients may fail to respond to initial treatment at 4 weeks, thus, there is a high unmet medical need for more effective therapies. 

The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare the clinical usefulness of plasma and MRI-based MarkVCID biomarkers in relation to age, sex, systemic vascular health, race, ethnicity and cognition.