AFTD and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) have committed to extending the Treat FTD Fund program through 2035, providing an additional ten years of support to accelerate treatment development for FTD disorders.

The Treat FTD program provides essential funding for early-stage clinical trials testing disease-modifying and symptom-relieving treatments. While the program supports experimental drugs, it also provides backing for projects evaluating medications approved for other conditions that can potentially be repurposed to treat FTD disorders. The open-label clinal trial being overseen by grant recipient Simon Ducharme, MD, MSc, is evaluating the use of nabilone, an FDA-approved synthetic cannabinoid, for use in treating agitation in FTD.

Non-drug-based interventions can also receive support through the Treat FTD Fund. Emiliano Santarnecchi, PhD, is leading a project evaluating the use of transcranial alternating current stimulation to improve behavioral symptoms and brain activity in persons with FTD.

A generous gift from the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation enables AFTD to extend this essential program. AFTD and ADDF will each provide $500,000 in funding to the Treat FTD Fund annually.

“FTD presents unique challenges to researchers working towards the effective treatments that are urgently needed for people living with FTD,” said AFTD Senior Director of Scientific Initiatives Penny Dacks, PhD. “However, there is growing momentum behind efforts to develop treatments. Through the TreatFTD fund, AFTD and our partners at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation accelerate that momentum by directly funding the early-stage programs that will often be considered too high risk for other investors from the for-profit world.”

Phase 1 & 2 clinical trials, like those supported by the Treat FTD Fund, are a critical step in developing effective treatments for FTD. During these first stages of clinical research, researchers determine if a treatment is safe, if there are any side effects, and what the proper dosage should be. Even when experimental treatments do not progress to Phase 3, the clinical trials advance FTD science by providing insights into the disease, often providing new avenues for further research. For example, while Wave Life Sciences’ FOCUS-C9 trial did not go past Phase 2, the study gathered critical biomarker data, demonstrated a new type of efficient clinical trial design, and showed encouraging results for synthetic-RNA-based drugs.

Interested in contributing to FTD research? Persons diagnosed, care partners, and family members can sign up for the FTD Disorders Registry to receive updates about studies they may be eligible for and to participate in surveys. AFTD’s website also features a selection of studies seeking participants.