<< Back
How does an early type of brain degeneration begin and progress in different people, potentially increasing one’s risk of dementia?
Laura Wisse, Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA - United States
Background
Individuals with Suspected Non-Alzheimer’s Pathology (SNAP) have damaged nerve cells, loss of brain volume and, in many cases, a decline in cognitive functions. People with SNAP do not have the hallmark beta-amyloid plaques of Alzheimer’s. To better understand SNAP, scientists are trying to understand its causes and the ways in which SNAP progresses in different people.
Research Plan
Dr. Laura Wisse and colleagues will study how SNAP begins and progresses in human brains. The reseachers will utilize information from three large repositories (UPenn Path dataset, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative and UPenn Alzheimer’s Disease Center dataset) of human brain data. This data will include brain scans and cognitive test results from older participants with SNAP. Researchers will compare this data with other groups of individuals in these studies, who have beta-amyloid plaques in their brains. Dr. Wisse and her team will analyze the data to determine how a variety of factors may impact SNAP. Such factors include (1) brain levels of beta-amyloid and tau, the two proteins most commonly linked to Alzheimer’s disease; (2) cerebrovascular disease, or the loss of blood flow in the brain; and (3) brain levels of proteins linked with frontotemporal dementia (caused by nerve cell loss in different brain regions) and other non-Alzheimer’s dementias. Dr. Wisse and her team will also assess how different people with SNAP may develop cognitive decline and the loss of brain volume over time. Specifically, the researchers will look at brain volume loss in various parts of a region (called the medial temporal lobe) — a region known to be impacted differently by different types of brain disorders.
Impact
The study results could help identify which individuals with SNAP are most likely to develop dementia.
Back to Top