Alzheimer's disease pathology in Down's syndrome
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding the role of iron-related and putative biomarker proteins in Alzheimer's disease pathology in Down's syndrome using peripheral venous blood and post mortem brain tissue samples.
IRAS ID
145704
Contact name
Ruma Raha-Chowdhury
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS FT and The University of Cambridge (joint sponsors)
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Adults with Down's syndrome (DS; caused by an extra-copy of chromosome-21) almost always develop AD pathology by the age of forty compared to the non-Down’s (general) population where it is rare at this age.By the time a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is made there is extensive characteristic brain pathology consisting of inflammatory changes, neuronal death, senile plaques and neurofilbrillary tangles. We propose this is due to iron-related proteins found at the sites of senile plaques, and are involved in inflammation and oxidative stress. Abnormalities of iron-related inflammation and oxidative stress factors are commoner in DS and are an early event in the disease process of AD that leads to nerve cell damage and death. Using blood samples provided by adult participants (and healthy volunteers as controls) with DS and without AD we have preliminary evidence to support these findings, which are also candidate disease markers. We propose to understand the relationship of these proteins and factors in the pathological process of AD by analysing specific proteins and other biochemical and cellular factors known to be involved in inflammation/oxidative stress by examining post-mortem brain tissue samples with and without dementia pathology provided by participating brain banks. We seek ethically approved post-mortem tissues from brain banks in Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester and London.
The research will be conducted in Cambridge at the Brain Repair Centre. We have ethical permission to collect blood samples from participants who are involved in our on-going Medical Research Council-funded brain scanning study, but we are now proposing to extend the study and use blood samples and post-mortem brain tissue samples provided by UK brain banks to study specific proteins and cells involved in inflammation and oxidative stress.REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/WM/0379
Date of REC Opinion
26 Oct 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion