Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

We propose to stimulate mechanisms underlying the regulation of body temperature to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD). Background: Aging is central to the development of AD. Elderly people present deficits in thermoregulation, i.e. they have problems maintaining their body temperature. We recently discovered in a mouse model of AD that thermoregulation defects are tightly associated with AD neuropathology. Indeed, in response to cold exposure, decreased body temperature increased a marker of AD in the brain of mice. Objective: Improve thermogenesis (production of heat by the body) to treat AD-like neuropathology. Method: We exposed mice to repeated short cold exposures to stimulate their thermogenesis and investigated brain markers of AD. Results: Stimulation of thermogenesis through repeated short cold exposures completely protected old mice from increased brain AD markers induced by acute cold exposure. Implications: Our results could open brand new strategies to treat AD and improve the living of the elderly.