Project Overview

Patients with dementia may have pure Alzheimer Disease (AD) pathology or a combination of pathologies called mixed dementia. In general, patients with younger age of onset (less than 65 years) tend to exhibit pure AD pathology, whereas older individuals are more likely to develop mixed dementia. Among the most common pathologies that affect patients with mixed dementia are AD, Lewy Body (the same pathology seen in patients with Parkinson’s disease) and cerebrovascular pathology.

Although we know which are the most frequent pathologies in dementia by age, we do not understand well how the different combinations of these different pathologies affect the brain and whether different combinations have distinct effects in different people. In particular, I am interested in studying the hippocampus, which is the main area of the brain responsible for memory and is severely affected in dementia.

I will use autopsy brain tissue and advanced histological and mathematical methods to identify the different subtypes of AD and mixed dementia pathology and use this knowledge to understand how these combinations develop. This research has not been performed before. It differs from other studies not only because of the highly innovative methods employed, but also in that it will analyze the less studied but most common form of dementia,namely the sporadic (non-genetic) form.

This research will identify tissue markers of the most common pathological types of dementia and will allow us to eventually test for them in a blood or cerebrospinal fluid sample. In the end, the final product of this research will be a test that will let patients and clinicians know which pathological subtype of dementia a patient has and will help clinicians choose the best treatment for that particular patient.

This research will provide unprecedented detail in human tissue as to the pathologies that affect different patients with sporadic dementia. By understanding the differences between patients, we will be able to identify tissue markers of these differences. These markers can then be measured in fluid samples during life to make the most accurate diagnosis possible for a given patient. This will become particularly important as new therapies for dementia are developed.

Principal Investigator

Veronica Hirsch-Reinshagen , University of British Columbia

Partners and Donors

Alzheimer Society of Canada