Grant: CIHR Fellowship

As the aging demographic grows, Alzheimer's disease has become the most common form of dementia in the elderly, occurring in 1 in 3 individuals over the age of 85 and affecting almost 50 million people worldwide. With longer life expectancies and an aging baby-boom generation, the number of Canadians living with Alzheimer's disease is expected to double to almost 1 million with an annual economic burden of over CAD$16.6 billion annually by the year 2031. The urgent need for improved diagnostic and treatment methods cannot be overstated given the profound social and economic impact of a surging Alzheimer's population. One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease is the presence of thread-like structures within the brain, called tau tangles. While it is still unknown exactly why these lesions develop in the first place, scientists believe that tangles clog the brain's communication highways and prevent cells from carrying out normal and necessary functions, causing them to degenerate. New research suggests that the brain's immune system may be to blame. Under normal circumstances, specialized inflammatory cells, called microglia, are deployed to surveil the brain for foreign cells, like viruses and bacteria. It is thought that, during Alzheimer's disease, these microglia begin to engage in 'friendly fire', inadvertently exposing healthy brain cells to toxic substances meant for unknown intruders. The purpose of our research is to identify exactly which of these toxic substances causes tau tangles to form in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. The results of our study will contribute to the development of novel drugs that can protect healthy cells from this bombardment of toxic molecules and prevent the assembly of tau tangles.