think health science: a leap toward a treatment for alzheimer's disease
DESCRIPTION
Dr. Veronica Galvan's accompanying slide presentation from TPR's Think Health Science event on 9/9/15.TRANSCRIPT
A Leap Toward a Treatment For Alzheimer’s Disease Veronica Galvan PhD Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies and the Department of Physiology “Think Health Science” Texas Public Radio University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
September 9, 2015
Cognitive impairment, personality changes, dementia
ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Alzheimer’s disease
Amyloid-beta plaques Tau tangles
Ongoing clinical trials § Amyloid-beta § Tau § Inflammation § Insulin resistance § Prevention in Familial Alzheimer’s
Neurological diseases of aging
Increasing age
Alzheimer’s
Parkinson’s
Normal
Vascular dementia
Risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease
How important is aging?
Aging overwhelms all other risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease
How important is aging?
How important is aging? Impact of slowing brain aging
on Alzheimer’s disease
The rate of aging is controlled by specific genes
Can we block diseases of aging like Alzheimer’s by slowing down aging?
Increasing age
Alzheimer’s
Parkinson’s
Normal
Vascular dementia
nature International weekly journal of science
nature International weekly journal of science
SCIENCE Breakthrough of the year
Alzheimer’s Parkinson’s
Vascular dementia Frontotemporal dementia
Dementia with Lewy Body
Unaffected sibling
A drug that slows aging treats established Alzheimer’s memory loss
Unaffected Sibling,
Rapamycin
AD Mouse
AD Mouse,
Rapamycin
Lear
ning
and
mem
ory
Normal sibling Alzheimer’s not treated
A drug that slows aging restores brain blood flow
Alzheimer’s treated with rapamycin
A drug that slows aging restores brain blood flow
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
Control Rapamycin
Normal sibling Alzheimer's
** NS
Brain blood flow is critical for brain function
Increasing brain blood flow reduces amyloid-beta accumulation
Control
Rapamycin
A drug that slows down aging stops the progression of Alzheimer’s in mice
A drug that slows down aging blocks Vascular Dementia in mice
Control
Rapamycin
Normal VaD VaD + rapamycin
Mem
ory
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
A drug that slows aging restores brain blood flow in very old rats
A drug that slows aging restores brain activity in very old rats
Slowing brain aging
Increasing age
Alzheimer’s
Parkinson’s
Normal
Vascular dementia
to treat Alzheimer’s
Increasing age
Alzheimer’s
Parkinson’s
Normal
Vascular dementia
Drugs to block age-associated neurological diseases
Rapamycin Rapalogs TOR inhibitors in development
Solanezumab Gantanerumab Aducanumab
0
5
10
15
Placebo Rapamycin
Before After
Clinical trial at the VA
Nor
mal
ized
sco
re
(SLU
MS
and
TA
PS
)
1 mg/day Dr. Dean Kellogg, personal communication
SA GRECC San Antonio Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center
Understanding brain aging to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s and related dementias
Knowledge = Knowledge Research = Power to treat and cure
Basic,Translational and Clinical Biomedical Research
Making lives better