Principal Investigators


Song, Weihong

Institution


University of British Columbia

Contact information of lead PI


Country


Canada

Title of project or programme


The role of RCAN1 in Alzheimer pathogenesis

Source of funding information


CIHR

Total sum awarded (Euro)


€ 594,750

Start date of award


01/07/2015

Total duration of award in years


5.0

The project/programme is most relevant to:


Alzheimer's disease and other dementias

Keywords


alzheimer's disease| amyloid beta protein| diabetes| drug dedevelopment| high glucose| neuronal apoptosis| racn1| transgeneic mice

Research Abstract


Lay Summary


Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder leading to dementia in the elderly population. Patients with diabetes have a greater risk to develop AD and a majority of AD patients also have hyperglycemia. The mechanism linking diabetes to AD remains undefined. Progressive neuronal loss is one of the pathological features of AD. People with Down Syndrome having extra copy of chromosome 21 develop characteristic AD neuropathology after middle age and several genes on chromosome 21 including APP and the regulator of calcineurin 1 (RCAN1) are implicated in AD pathogenesis. Our preliminary studies suggest that RCAN1 promotes neurodegeneration and our working hypothesis is that abnormal RCAN1 expression and function contribute to Alzheimer pathogenesis. This proposal seeks to elucidate the molecular mechanism of RCAN1’s effect on Alzheimer pathogenesis and define its role in linking diabetes to AD. The results will be of clinical significance and provide evidences for targeting RCAN1 in AD treatment.

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