ADAPTED enters its final month

The ADAPTED (Alzheimer’s Disease Apolipoprotein Pathology for Treatment Elucidation and Development)  project is a major initiative aiming  to improve the understanding of the function of the APOE gene and the role it may play in the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). APOE is well known as a risk factor for developing the disease but precisely how this gene contributes to the risk of developing AD is not known. ADAPTED brings together the expertise of researchers in universities, research institutes and biotech and pharmaceutical companies from across Europe and the USA.

The ADAPTED project has started on 1st October 2016 and comes to an end on 30th September 2020. The ADAPTED members are  very busy as they work on collecting the remaining data and completing the final analyses which were delayed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.  They expect a number of papers to come from this ongoing analysis – every member of the ADAPTED consortium is currently involved in preparing a manuscript!

So far, the ADAPTED project has published several papers including:

  • “PLCG2 protective variant p.P522R modulates tau pathology and disease progression in patients with mild cognitive impairment”, Acta  Neuropathologica (2020). This paper is showing that a rare coding variant in the PLCG2 gene slows Alzheimer’s disease progression and maintains cognitive function- apparently counteracting the deleterious effect of the APOE ε4 allele. This highlights the PLCG2 enzyme as a potential target for therapeutic intervention in AD.

  • “CDH6 and HAGH protein levels in plasma associate with Alzheimer’s disease in APOE ε4 carriers”, Scientific Reports volume 10, Article number: 8233 (2020). This work is showing that levels of proteins CDH6 and HAGH are significantly higher in AD patients who also carry the APOE ε4 gene,  compared to healthy controls. This suggests that CDH6 and HAGH could be used as new blood-based biomarkers for the detection of presymptomtic AD.

  • “A perfused human blood–brain barrier on-a-chip for high-throughput assessment of barrier function and antibody transport”, Fluids Barriers CNS (2018) 15:23. The aim of this study was to develop a novel model of the human blood–brain barrier (BBB) in a high-through-put microfluidic device. This can be used, for example, to study the effects of different APOE genotypes on barrier function,  or how potential therapies are transported into the brain.

  • “Genome Wide Meta-Analysis identifies common genetic signatures shared by heart function and Alzheimer’s disease”, Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 16665 (2019). This paper shows an unexpected potential genetic link between echocardiographic measures and cognitive decline in later life. This could be used to design preventative strategies to combat Alzheimer’s disease – connecting heart disease monitoring with screening for cognitive problems.

  • “Circulating metabolites and general cognitive ability and dementia: Evidence from 11 cohort studies“, Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 6th January 2018, Pages 707-722. Authors performed a comprehensive metabolic analysis to study the role of circulating metabolites in cognitive function.

https://www.imi-adapted.eu/single-post/2020/08/27/ADAPTED-enters-its-final-month