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Status unknownNCT05538507Updated Sep 14, 2022

Efficacy of Chinese Traditional Medicine "Smart Soup" in Cognition and Behavior Regulation in Alzheimer's Disease

A Phase 2 interventional study of smart soup and Donepezil in Alzheimer Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment, sponsored by Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Status unknown at 1 site in China. Open to participants aged 40 Years to 90 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-09-14.

Sponsored by Peking Union Medical College Hospital · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Sep 2022), so the status shown — last known as Recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
180
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
40 Years to 90 Years
Sex
All
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Study summary

It is a prospective interventional randomized controlled single center trial. The goal of the trial is to evaluate the efficacy of smart soup on cognition, behavior, biomarkers and safety in Alzheimer's disease (aMCI and dementia).

Read the detailed description

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and places a heavy burden on patients, families, society and healthcare. The drugs that have been marketed worldwide for the treatment of AD so far can only delay but not reverse the course of the disease, and the current drug development is all directed at a single target, while the onset of AD is the result of a combination of multiple factors, which is an important reason why so many drugs have faltered. The investigators need to find new multi-target intervention pathways from another perspective.

The advantage of Chinese medicine is multi-target and multi-factor regulation, which has advantages in treating complex diseases. The combination of ancient smart soup with donepezil was able to significantly improve the cognitive function in demented animals. Smart Soup is prepared from three herbs: Rhizoma Acori Tatarinowii, Poria cum Radix Pini, Radix Polygalae. These three herbs are each 15 grams and ground into a very fine powder. This approach reduced the formation of characteristic pathological changes at the pathological level, therefore, the combination of ancient Chinese medicine formulae with modern medical treatment may bring new hope to the treatment of demented patients.

The main design of this study are following: Patients over 40 years of age and eligible for NIA-AA 2011 probable AD and probable MCI were included in this study and were divided into 6 groups of 30 patients each. Group I AD patients were given donepezil 10 mg, memantine 20 mg and smart soup, group II AD patients were given donepezil 10 mg, memantine 20 mg and placebo; group III AD patients were given donepezil 10 mg and smart soup, group IV AD patients were given donepezil 10 mg and placebo; group V mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients were given smart soup, and group VI MCI patients were given placebo.

Evaluations were set before enrollment, every three months till one year and the evaluators were single-blind. The scales involved in the evaluation of cognitive function and quality of life, sleep condition, and emotional behavior included ADAS-cog, MMSE, CDR, ADL, CMAI, NPI, and EQ-5D, which were evaluated five times. MRI, EEG, blood oxidative stress indicators, and biological markers were collected at the same time at enrollment and at the end of the study. Genotype collection was completed at enrollment. Safety was also evaluated with monthly testing of ECG, routine blood, liver and kidney function, urinary routine, and recording of side effects.

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Conditions studied

  • Alzheimer Disease
  • Mild Cognitive Impairment

Keywords

  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Traditional Chinese Medicine
  • Smart soup
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In context

Alzheimer Disease

3,678 studies on the registry are indexed under Alzheimer Disease; 872 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 180 is above the median of 70 across 2,808 interventional studies indexed under Alzheimer Disease.

Browse Alzheimer Disease studies →

Lead sponsor

Peking Union Medical College Hospital is the lead sponsor of 1,115 studies on the registry; 463 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
40 Years to 90 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • NIA-AA 2011 AD probable Alzheimer's disease, mild to moderate, stable use donepezil 10mg/d for 3 months
  • NIA-AA 2011 AD probable Alzheimer's disease, severe, stable use donepezil 10mg/d and memantine 20mg/d for 3 months
  • NIA-AA 2011 MCI probable criteria
  • stable care giver
  • Traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis: pixu tanzhuo

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Severe systemic disease (heart, liver ,kidney function failure)
  • contradictions of MRI examination
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Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Quadruple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
180 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Group I severe AD

    Patients over 40 years of age and eligible for NIA-AA 2011 probable severe AD will be given donepezil 10 mg, memantine 20 mg and smart soup

    Drug: smart soup · Drug: Donepezil · Drug: Memantine

  • Sham comparator
    Group II severe AD

    Patients over 40 years of age and eligible for NIA-AA 2011 probable severe AD will be given donepezil 10 mg, memantine 20 mg and placebo

    Drug: Donepezil · Drug: Memantine · Drug: Placebo

  • Active comparator
    Group III Mild or moderate AD

    Patients over 40 years of age and eligible for NIA-AA 2011 probable mild or moderate AD will be given donepezil 10 mg and smart soup

    Drug: smart soup · Drug: Donepezil

  • Sham comparator
    Group IV Mild or moderate AD

    Patients over 40 years of age and eligible for NIA-AA 2011 probable mild or moderate AD will be given donepezil 10 mg and placebo

    Drug: Donepezil · Drug: Placebo

  • Active comparator
    Group V MCI

    Patients over 40 years of age and eligible for NIA-AA 2011 probable MCI will be given smart soup

    Drug: smart soup

  • Sham comparator
    Group VI MCI

    Patients over 40 years of age and eligible for NIA-AA 2011 probable MCI will be given placebo

    Drug: Placebo

Interventions

  • Drugsmart soup

    Severe AD, mild or moderate AD and MCI will be given smart soup

    Also known as: traditional chinese medicine

  • DrugDonepezil

    Severe AD and mild or moderate AD will be given donepezil

    Also known as: donepezil pill

  • DrugMemantine

    Severe AD will be given memantine

    Also known as: Memantine Pill

  • DrugPlacebo

    patients with MCI will be given placebo

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Changes of cognitive screening

    Using the neuropsychological scale, mini-mental state examination (MMSE,0-30), to assess every three months after trial entry

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 years

  2. Changes of comprehensive cognitive assessment

    Use the neuropsychological scales, Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive section (ADAS-cog 0-75), to assess every three months after trial entry

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 years

  3. Changes in the degree of dementia

    Use the neuropsychological scales, CDR(0-3), to assess every three months after trial entry

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 years

  4. Changes in behavior

    Use the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI,29-203) to assess every three months after trial entry

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 years

  5. Changes in Psychiatric symptoms

    Use the Neuropsychiatric Index (NPI) to assess every three months after trial entry

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 years

  6. Changes of daily living skills

    Use Activity of Daily Living Scale(ADL,20-80)to assess every three months after trial entry

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 years

  7. Changes in health status

    Use EuroQoL 5-dimension (EQ-5D,0-100) to assess every three months after trial entry

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 years

  8. Tau and Beta-amyloid biomarkers in CSF and plasma

    Concentration ( pg/mL) of beta-amyloid, tau and phospho-tau in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma of patients with dementia and controls

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 years

  9. Magnetic resonance imaging and Electroencephalogram(EEG)

    Evaluate the imaging and EEG changes of dementia patients. Specifically, EEG can be used to monitor the activity of brain waves in different parts of the cerebral cortex (e.g. power in alpha band, distribution and power of slow theta/delta waves etc.)

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 years

  10. Oxidative stress markers in blood

    Concentration of Dopamine in blood of patients with dementia and controls

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 years

  11. Alterations of neurotransmitters in the blood

    Concentration (ng/ml) of 5-hydroxy tryptamine (HT) in blood of patients with dementia and controls

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 years

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Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
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References and documents

Publications

  • Hou Y, Wang Y, Zhao J, Li X, Cui J, Ding J, Wang Y, Zeng X, Ling Y, Shen X, Chen S, Huang C, Pei G. Smart Soup, a traditional Chinese medicine formula, ameliorates amyloid pathology and related cognitive deficits. PLoS One. 2014 Nov 11;9(11):e111215. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0111215. eCollection 2014. Erratum In: PLoS One. 2020 Aug 3;15(8):e0237035. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237035. PubMed 25386946 ↗
  • Wang Y, Wang Y, Sui Y, Yu H, Shen X, Chen S, Pei G, Zhao J, Ding J. The combination of aricept with a traditional Chinese medicine formula, smart soup, may be a novel way to treat Alzheimer's disease. J Alzheimers Dis. 2015;45(4):1185-95. doi: 10.3233/JAD-143183. PubMed 25690664 ↗
  • Ling Y, Li Z, Chen M, Sun Z, Fan M, Huang C. Analysis of multiple constituents in Cong-Ming-Tang, a Chinese herbal formula for the treatment of amnesia, by high-performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Phytochem Anal. 2013 Nov-Dec;24(6):677-88. doi: 10.1002/pca.2454. Epub 2013 Jul 9. PubMed 23839964 ↗
  • McKhann GM, Knopman DS, Chertkow H, Hyman BT, Jack CR Jr, Kawas CH, Klunk WE, Koroshetz WJ, Manly JJ, Mayeux R, Mohs RC, Morris JC, Rossor MN, Scheltens P, Carrillo MC, Thies B, Weintraub S, Phelps CH. The diagnosis of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease: recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Dement. 2011 May;7(3):263-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2011.03.005. Epub 2011 Apr 21. PubMed 21514250 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 14, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05538507
Lead sponsor
Peking Union Medical College Hospital
Collaborators
Tongji University
Responsible party
gaojing (Professor, Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital) — Principal investigator
First posted
Sep 14, 2022
Start date
Jun 1, 2022
Primary completion
Jun 2024 (estimated)
Completion
Jun 2024 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 14, 2022

Study contacts

Chenhui Mao, MD
Contact
maochenhui@pumch.cn
+86-010-69151389
Jing Gao, MD
Contact
gj107@163.com
+86-010-69151389
Jing Gao, MD
principal investigator · Peking Union Medical College Hospital

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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