Selenica says their study is the first to provide a novel pathway and identify potential therapeutic targets for TDP-43 proteinopathies – especially in Alzheimer’s disease and the newly characterized form of dementia known as LATE.
Through the group's work, they found that the therapeutic targeting of TREM2 using a TREM2-activating antibody leads to the activation of microglia, recruitment of microglia to amyloid plaques, reduced amyloid deposition, and ultimately improved cognition.
“We used to think that aging-related memory and thinking decline meant one thing: a disease called Alzheimer’s disease. Now we know that the disease we were calling Alzheimer’s disease is actually many different conditions, often in combination."
Prendergast says statistics show that less than five percent of undergraduate neuroscience students in the U.S. are Black or African American, but at UK nearly ten percent of undergraduate neuroscience majors identify as Black or African American.
Researchers will be looking at a medication that recently received experimental approval from the USDA and its impact on the newly characterized form of dementia known as LATE. LATE is a disease with symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s disease.
For the past several decades, much of the work to find a treatment for AD has been focused on eliminating those dreaded Aβ plaques, by assuming that memory could be restored by removing the plaques.
The National Institutes of Health award will fund ongoing research led by UK Neuroscience and Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center (SCoBIRC) Professor Patrick Sullivan, Ph.D., who has studied the effects of the experimental drug MP201 on TBI.
This work is looking at a study medication, BAN2401, to determine if it can help prevent worsening memory and thinking among individuals who might be at risk for future decline. They are hoping it will ultimately help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
The $125,000 grant comes from The CART Fund. CART (Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust) is a grassroots effort by Rotary Club members throughout the country to provide cutting edge research to help find a cure for Alzheimer’s.
The long-running study on aging and brain health at UK’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging (SBCoA) Alzheimer’s Disease Center has once again resulted in important new findings – highlighting a complex and under-recognized form of dementia.
