Identifying therapeutic and preventive targets for dementia using fatty acid nutrition in the brain
Over the past decades, nutrition has risen to the forefront of research on neurodegenerative diseases including dementia.
Epidemiological and preclinical studies have solidly shown that adequate nutrition can benefit cognition. Particularly, dietary fats have received attention due to their prevalence in human diets and their impact on brain lipid concentrations. Studies generally indicate that diets rich in poly- and monounsaturated fatty acids are associated with a lower incidence of dementia, while diets rich in saturated fatty acids are considered detrimental to cognition.
The connection between brain function, lipid content, and diet composition has led to the hypothesis that dietary interventions could prevent or modify disease progression in dementia.
Aim
- Explore the mechanisms for how fatty acids suppress the phenotype observed in a dementia model.
In recent times, major breakthroughs have allowed us to clinically characterize the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s diseases (AD) and non-Alzheimer’s dementia including vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies.
Given the overwhelmingly higher prevalence of AD in our ageing society, most of the scientific endeavors have focused on this condition. Consequently, the research field of AD has now moved to a point where high-performance neuroimaging and biofluid tests are proven reliable for Aβ and tau measurement. Furthermore, a novel AD drug (i.e. Lecanemab) has been recently approved by FDA for the treatment of early-staged AD. On the other hand, there has been very little progress in research on non-Alzheimer’s dementia despite their detrimental impacts on peoples’ lives.
Our ultimate goal is to identify therapeutic and preventive targets for Dementia.
In this project, we will use
- genome modification (CRISPR/CAS9, virus-induced overexpression system)
- transgenic mouse model (Alzheimer’s diseases, non-Alzheimer’s dementia)
- cell culture (cell lines, primary culture of neuron, astrocyte, microglia)
- immunohistochemistry, immunocytochemistry
- high resolution microscopy imaging
- FACS analysis, FACS cell sorting
- molecular biological techniques (Western Blot, Immuno Precipitation, quantitative RT-PCR)
- electron physiology (multi-electrode array)
Research team
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