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PHILADELPHIA – The Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) at the University of Pennsylvania has received a grant expected to total $18.1 million to study the underlying genetic mechanisms that cause Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia, and Parkinson’s Disease to progress as well as how those mechanisms are related to each other and to the cell-to-cell spread of these disease proteins. The grant, awarded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging (NIA), will fund four specific projects over the next five years.

The Alzheimer’s Association estimates there are 5.8 million Americans currently living with Alzheimer’s. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. About 80 percent of Alzheimer’s patients also develop dementia. Both of these diseases affect language and memory, whereas Parkinson’s mainly affects motor skills. The three conditions are often associated with each other, and previous research from the CNDR and others has shown they share several underlying connections, including a connection to a protein called alpha-synuclein as well as Alzheimer’s Disease plaques and tangles. When normal alpha-synuclein proteins become misfolded and are not cleared away, they become deposits in the brain in the form of lesions known as Lewy bodies. They affect chemicals in the brain, which, in turn, can lead to problems with thinking, movement, behavior, and mood.

“Our theory is that specific misfolded shapes of these alpha-synuclein proteins can lead to specific, different diseases. For example, one pattern may be associated with Alzheimer’s, another with Alzheimer’s and dementia, another with Parkinson’s and Dementia, and so on,” said John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD, the William Maul Measey-Truman G. Schnabel, Jr., M.D. Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Penn Medicine. Trojanowski is also the co-director and co-founder of the CNDR with Virginia Man-Yee Lee, PhD, MBA, the John H. Ware 3rd Endowed Professor in Alzheimer's Research.

Trojanowski
John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD

The grant will seek to further the team’s theory through four specific projects. The first project, led by Lee, will evaluate alpha-synuclein in test tubes and cell cultures in an effort to better understand how misfolding happens and how specific shapes are created. The second, led by Trojanowski, will mimic the first project in animal models to study the impact of these shapes on the progression of disease.

The other two projects will move the work into the clinic. Project three will use imaging and antibodies to study how a patient who begins with Parkinson’s progresses to dementia and vice-versa. This work, led by Murray Grossman, MD, EDD, a professor of Neurology, will focus on the potential identification of biomarkers. The fourth project will focus on tissue samples in an effort to identify genetic risk factors for these diseases. Alice S. Chen-Plotkin, MD, the Parker Family Associate Professor of Neurology, will lead this work.

Core leaders for the Penn projects include Trojanowski, Daniel Weintraub, MD, a professor of Psychiatry and fellow in Penn’s Institute of Aging, and Sharon Xiangwen Xie, PhD, a professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology.

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Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.

The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.

Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.

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