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About Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disease that destroys vital brain cells, seriously impairing the individual’s memory and ability to think. It is the most common form of dementia, which is a syndrome consisting of symptoms that include loss of memory, judgment and reasoning, and changes in mood, behaviour and communication abilities.
In addition to affecting a person's mental abilities, Alzheimer's disease affects moods and emotions. Changes in behaviour occur and, gradually, independence disappears. At present, once these abilities are lost, they are not known to return.
One in 13 Canadians over the age of 65 has Alzheimer's or a related disease – that’s approximately 500,000 people. At age 85, the number of Canadians with Alzheimer’s or a related disease jumps dramatically to one in three.
About $5.5 billion is spent each year in Canada on persons with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. The annual societal cost of care per individual with Alzheimer's disease is estimated to range from $9,451 for mild disease to $36,794 for severe disease.
Robarts Scientists Involved in Alzheimer’s and Dementia Research
There are currently many approaches to Alzheimer’s disease research worldwide; however most of that research focuses on the later stages of the disease. This is primarily due to the inability to accurately diagnose Alzheimer’s early in the development of the disease. As with many diseases, Alzheimer’s begins long before the first clinical symptoms appear, making it difficult to diagnose patients early in disease progression.
Robarts scientists are tackling this issue by investigating the cellular processes involved in the disease, as well as using targeted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to provide earlier and more definitive diagnoses.
Robarts cellular neuroscientist and co-director of the Molecular Brain Research group, Dr. Jane Rylett, is one of Canada’s leading scientists in Alzheimer’s disease research. She has made outstanding progress in researching the fundamental pathology of Alzheimer’s disease. She has more than 20 years of experience investigating the basic signalling pathways within cholinergic neurons, which control cognitive functions and attention processes. In particular, she has focused her research on proteins involved in the synthesis, storage and release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, a crucial chemical responsible for transporting messages between nerve cells in the brain.
Ultimately, Dr. Rylett’s work aims to fully understand the events that control the function of cholinergic neurons in the healthy brain, so interventions can be administered to effectively restore neurological function at the earliest possible stage of Alzheimer’s disease.
With training as a pharmacologist, Dr. Rylett uses her expertise to study drug actions at the cellular and molecular level, and to determine their impact on neurotransmission, disease progression and treatment. Studies in Dr. Rylett’s lab have revealed that Reminyl, a drug used to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, might be able to alter the course of disease by protecting nerve cells from oxidative stress.
Close collaboration with other Robarts Scientists in the Molecular Brain Research group and a multidisciplinary approach allows Dr. Rylett to bring a broad range of expertise to investigations of degenerative processes involved in Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, there are four members of the group, in addition to Dr. Rylett – Dr. Stephen Ferguson, Robarts’ Director Dr. John MacDonald, Dr. Marco Prado, and Dr. Vania Prado – who are working to identify new proteins that may contribute to either the survival of neurons or to a path of neurodegeneration.
On the imaging front, Dr. Robert Bartha contributes an important advanced imaging component to the Alzheimer’s research. His work is focused on developing new non-invasive Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) techniques to investigate chemical changes that occur in brain tissue over the course of progressive diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Dr. Bartha has developed advanced methods for measuring individual metabolite levels, particularly at very low concentrations in highly localized regions of the brain. These techniques provide metabolic information with high precision that can be applied to the study of Alzheimer’s and any neurological disease. As well, through the use of imaging technologies, researchers will be able to visualize neurodegenerative disorders at the molecular level so effective therapeutic techniques can be developed.
In early 2004, Dr. Stephen Pasternak joined Robarts as an Associate Scientist. As an MD with a PhD in neurology and neurobiology, Dr. Pasternak sees patients in the Cognitive Neurology clinic at St. Joseph’s Health Care London where he is involved in clinical trials in neurodegenerative disease. His laboratory at Robarts is focused on understanding the production of beta-amyloid, the toxic protein that deposits in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients. The goal of his work is to understand the basic biology of enzymes involved in production of toxic beta-amyloid peptides using molecular, proteomic, and cell biology approaches.
Impact of Research
As the Canadian population continues to age dramatically, Alzheimer’s disease and its impact on society will increase significantly.
Today, 500,000 Canadians have Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. If nothing changes, more than one million Canadians will have Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia within 25 years. Within a generation, the number of Canadians with Alzheimer’s disease will more than double.
Research conducted at Robarts has the potential to mitigate this impending crisis by providing strategies to identify Alzheimer’s at an earlier stage, ultimately allowing clinicians to treat or prevent early pathology associated with the disease.
Learn more about Robarts fundraising priorities in Alzheimer's Disease research.