Neuropathology of disorders of movement and cognition
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The neuropathological basis of disease heterogeneity in disorders of movement and cognition
IRAS ID
191537
Contact name
Roger Barker
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
The main focus of this work is to better understand the underlying reasons for variability in the clinical symptoms and rate of progression of neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease. When the brains of individuals who have died with these diseases are examined at post mortem, there are characteristic pathological changes involving aggregation of particular proteins within the brain cells, and dysfunction and death of these cells. The key proteins are alpha synuclein in Parkinson’s disease and huntingtin in Huntington’s disease. However we don’t fully understand what role these protein aggregates are playing, and why they seem to spread through the brain at different rates in different people, leading to rapidly progressing symptoms in some individuals but a relatively benign disease course in others. We know that inflammation occurs in the brains of people with neurodegenerative diseases, and this may be relevant but the extent of inflammation in the brain and how it relates to protein aggregation has not yet been determined. We also know that other proteins in addition to alpha synuclein and huntingtin play a role, and a protein called tau has been particularly implicated through our own previous work in the field. We would now like to examine post mortem brains of individuals who have died with neurodegnerative diseases including Parkinson’s and Huntington’s to explore inflammatory changes and their relationship to aggregation of proteins including alpha synuclein, huntingtin and tau amongst others. Many of the brain samples will come from individuals that we have studied in our research clinics during life, thus we will be able to investigate the relationship between these pathological changes and the pattern and speed of progression of their symptoms. We hope this will lead to an improved understanding of these conditions which will ultimately lead to new treatment strategies.
REC name
London - Bloomsbury Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/0508
Date of REC Opinion
18 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion