Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects

Alzheimers disease (AD) currently cannot be cured and is often not diagnosed in its early stages. The disease has a largeimpact on patients as well as their families, caregivers and society as a whole. Probable AD is currently diagnosed by clinicalevaluation, including cognitive testing and by detecting the protein, amyloid in plaques in the brain via expensive brainscans. We have developed a method that uses light (without dye) to detect the amyloid in the nerve cell layers of the retinaof the eye as a marker of its presence in the brain. An imaging device based on this method will be much less expensive,less invasive and more broadly available than brain scans. A successful device will be able to detect people at risk for AD atan early stage. Then patients could receive early stage treatments to prevent or slow the progression of the disease. Thismethod of tracking a marker of the disease would make it useful for testing new treatments, which target amyloid early inAD, and would reduce the cost of their development. Earlier and better treatments would lead to better quality of life forpatients and their families and ultimately prevent the devastating consequences of AD.Our device testing will examine the relationship between amyloid in the retina and amyloid in the brain both in the living eyeand after death. Our goal will be to predict the load of amyloid in the brain from our measurements of amyloid in the retina.We will study those diagnosed with probable AD, mild cognitive impairment due to AD pathology and those with geneticmarkers at risk for AD. As a comparison population, we will also image the living eyes and brains of normal older people andthose with symptoms of dementia not due to AD (in whom less brain amyloid is expected). If the device successfully predictsthe amount of amyloid in the brain, it may be used to screen those at risk of developing AD.