Type 2 diabetes accelerates brain aging, alters brain blood flow and increases the risk for dementia. Currently, there is no treatment for DM-related cognitive decline. Recently, intranasal insulin (INI) therapy has emerged as a potential new solution to deliver insulin safely to the brain and treat DM-related cognitive impairment. Our previous study showed that intranasal insulin improved memory and learning in subjects with type 2 diabetes and healthy controls. MemAid trial is a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study that in 180 older adults with type 2 DM and 180 non-diabetic controls older than 50 years, examining whether 40 IU (Novolin R ®, Novo Nordisk) once daily over a 24 week period improves memory, verbal learning and activities of daily living, and gait. We will also determine a phenotype predicting a clinically relevant response to intranasal insulin therapy and long term safety of intranasal insulin vs. This study will help us to determine the safety of prolonged INI treatment; the best outcome domains; and the best patient characteristics to be used in future large-scale efficacy studies. The study is sponsored by NIH-NIDDK (1R01DK13902-01A1) to V. Novak, and registered as NCT04215556 at https://clinicaltrials.gov.
