Association Awards Highest-Ever Level of Research Grants

Alzheimer's Association
Wednesday, 27 August 1997

The Alzheimer's Association awarded a record of nearly $10 million in research grants during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1997. While the grants fund all aspects of investigation in Alzheimer's disease, a majority of the most prestigious awards focus on the role of inflammation in the Alzheimer brain.

The Association made 64 research grants totaling $9,791,679 in FY97, an increase of more than 40 percent over the previous year. Since its founding in 1980, the Association has awarded more than $58 million in research grants, making it the largest private funder of Alzheimer research.

"The main objective of the Alzheimer's Association's research program is to create a world without Alzheimer's disease, " said Edward Truschke, Association president and CEO. "The first step in that effort is extending the period of independent functioning in people who have the disease. The symptoms that reduce, and eventually eliminate, independence are what cause the most distress to people with the disease and their family members. We want to find the means to delay the symptoms and help people with Alzheimer's function independently longer, in fact, for all of their lives. "

"To do this, we need to know what's causing brain cells to dysfunction and die, " Truschke said. "Our goal is to first slow that process, and eventually stop and then prevent the process from happening altogether. "

According to Truschke, the immediate events that seem to cause people to lose function are: the improper functioning of nerve cells, the inability of nerve cells to communicate well with each other, and the actual loss of parts of the cell communications system.

The Association supports research investigating a number of different ideas about how these types of dysfunction come about. Four of the key ideas are:

- Inflammatory reaction to insults to the brain — by toxins, infectious agents, the breakdown of tiny blood vessels, and/or deposits of amyloid protein, which may produce a cascade of events that can lead to cell dysfunction.

- Formation of abnormal proteins in the brain — including tangles of tau protein and plaques of amyloid protein that can be neurotoxic.

- Problems with availability of energy in the brain — dysfunction may result from defects in mitochondria, the main cellular factory for converting glucose into energy, and/or abnormalities in the blood vessels in the brain.

- Problems with the brain's repair system — including protective and growth factors, such as estrogen, that currently seem unable to prevent the destruction caused by Alzheimer's, but may soon be utilized in treatments for the disease.

The Zenith Awards, the Association's largest and most prestigious research grants, are given to researchers with proven track records in Alzheimer research to enable them to pioneer new territory. "Zenith Award recipients are some of the brightest minds in science tackling questions central to Alzheimer's disease, " Truschke said. "The answers they discover may lead to the development of methods to treat, and possibly prevent, this terrible disease. "

Three of the past year's five Zenith Awards went to researchers investigating inflammatory processes in the Alzheimer brain, and how to stop them, a relatively new and promising area of study.

While scientists have known since the 1920s that cells involved in the inflammatory process become activated in the Alzheimer brain, it has only been recently reported that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, may slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. "We know that inflammation produces a cascade of events that can lead to cell dysfunction, but we don't yet know exactly what role it plays in Alzheimer's disease, " Truschke said. "Plus there are other important questions: What is the relationship between plaques and tangles — the known Alzheimer's disease brain lesions — and inflammation? Why don't the body's natural defense mechanisms reduce inflammation in the Alzheimer brain? How do we stop the inflammation, or at least stop it from killing brain cells? "

The three Zenith Awards that focused on inflammation will directly address these questions. The Zenith Awards were made to: Joseph Rogers, Ph.D., Sun Health Research Institute, Sun City, Ariz.; Richard Kraig, Ph.D., University of Chicago; and Dana Giulian, M.D., Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.

"Regarding drug treatments, prospective studies show NSAIDs seem to have some positive effects, but they are not very specific in their impact. The Association's goal is to develop targeted drugs that block only the inflammation related to Alzheimer's, and leave other, possibly beneficial actions, alone. These studies will lead us further down that road, " Truschke said.

For more information, or to contact Alzheimer's Association, see their website at: www.alz.org