Pharmacist and chemist Dr Martin Giera, head of the Metabolomics group at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), together with neuroscientist Dr Rik van der Kant of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Alzheimer Center Amsterdam UMC, has received a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s (CZI) Neurodegeneration Challenge Network. With the grant of 1.6 million dollars, they and neuroscientist Priyanka Narayan of the National Institutes of Health (United States) will conduct research into further mapping the metabolism of fats (fat metabolism) in the brain. This is reported by the LUMC.
With this research project, the scientists want to contribute to a better understanding of brain diseases. They also want to play a role in accelerating the development of drugs that can repair the disrupted fat metabolism. Previous research has shown that fats (or lipids) play a major role in various brain diseases. Future drugs that can regulate the metabolism of fats in the brain are expected to have a great chance of stopping or even curing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Cholesterol accumulation in Alzheimer’s mutations
The grant follows on from a $150,000 starting grant that the researchers received 18 months ago from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). Project leaders Giera and Van der Kant: “During the initial phase, our research groups developed a new way of mapping fat metabolism in human brain cells. We have shown that certain fats, mainly cholesterol, accumulate in brain cells with certain Alzheimer’s mutations.” Based on these and previous discoveries, the scientists will start a clinical trial with possible new brain cholesterol-lowering drugs at the Amsterdam UMC in the spring of 2023, led by Van der Kant.
Follow-up studies in other brain diseases
With the new, larger subsidy, Van der Kant and Giera will test whether fat metabolism is also disrupted in at least six other brain diseases. “You can’t just take these cells out of someone’s head, which is why we copy them. We do this by developing stem cells that we can adapt in such a way that they are identical to brain cells. We can then extensively study the fat metabolism of those cells,” explains Giera. “Thanks to a combination of advanced fat (lipid) analysis methods developed at the LUMC and stem cell technologies from Amsterdam, it is possible for the first time to study the fat metabolism of these cells.”
By: National Care Guide