EU-FINGERS frequently asked questions

Alzheimer’s disease is a specific type of dementia in which symptoms usually develop slowly and worsen over time. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, but not everyone with dementia has Alzheimer’s disease.

In people with Alzheimer’s disease, the brain undergoes changes, including the accumulation of proteins called “ß-amyloid” and “Tau” in the brain. The accumulation of these proteins can start more than a decade before clinical symptoms occur.

During the last few years, new conceptual approaches and criteria to describe Alzheimer’s disease have been developed referring to the spectrum of Alzheimer’s disease in three stages: (1) preclinical Alzheimer’s disease, (2) mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer’s disease, and (3) dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. You can read more about the changing definition of Alzheimer’s disease here.

There is currently no available cure for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Today, there is a worldwide effort under way to delay the onset of the disease and prevent it from developing. To that end, EU-FINGERS proposes a novel multimodal prevention framework of precision medicine to address the complex nature of dementia, which focuses on the improvement of vascular and lifestyle-based risk factors. The aim is to deliver targeted and timely interventions to effectively prevent and delay dementia

The consortium is being organised in several European countries under the coordination of Karolinska Institutet. Over time, other sources of funding will be sought to maintain and grow the EU-FINGERS platform as a whole.

Research groups are welcome to contact us to explore areas of collaboration. EU-FINGERS is working to provide a common framework and align main European cohorts in the dementia and Alzheimer’s disease research field.