Name of Fellow


Dr. A.W. Lemstra

Institution


Funder


ZonMw

Contact information of fellow


Country


The Netherlands

Title of project/programme


Dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer's disease: an unfortunate couple?

Source of funding information


ZonMw

Total sum awarded (Euro)


€ 149,490

Start date of award


01/10/15

Total duration of award in years


4.0

The project/programme is most relevant to:


Alzheimer's disease & other dementias

Keywords


Dementia with Lewy Bodies | concomittant AD-pathology | longitudinal cohort | biomarkers | genetics

Research Abstract


Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that is the second most common form of dementia. Up to 50-80% of patients with DLB have coexisting AD-pathology (amyloid and tau depositions). Up till now surprisingly very little research has been performed to study the cause or clinical relevance of AD-copathology in DLB. Aggregated evidence from postmortem studies suggests an added effect of AD-pathology on clinical manifestation and disease progression in DLB. But it is questionable how we can translate postmortem data to our patient in daily clinical practice. With current state-of the art biomarkers techniques it is now feasible to detect AD-pathology during life, most effectively by CSF-analysis of disease-specific proteins, i.e amyloid-beta and tau. With CSF we can detect AD-pathology in early stages of disease. We have already shown in a large series of DLB-patients that a substantial portion of patients have a CSF-profile compatible with AD. The overall aim of this project is to investigate the clinical relevance of AD-pathology in early stages of DLB and to understand the biological factors that contribute to this effect, in order to improve care and offer personalized treatment strategies for DLB-patients. AD-pathology is detected by CSF-biomarkers.

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