Awarded recently, the new R01 award from the National Institute on Aging supports a project to study whether risk genes for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affect childhood brain development. Dr. Warren’s lab is currently recruiting healthy children for the study, which is titled Polygenic Risk of Alzheimer’s disease in Nebraska Kids (PRANK for short; participating children are PRANKsters). Participants in the study will help Dr. Warren and the team test their hypothesis that AD risk genes alter neurodevelopment of the brain systems most affected by AD, in ways that increase AD vulnerability.
Dr. Warren, the project’s principal investigator, is a new, early-stage investigator with a background in the cognitive neuroscience of memory and expertise in methods including neuroimaging and neuropsychology. Dr. Warren’s team will apply these methods to the study of early polygenic effects on neurodevelopment that may affect the risk of late-onset neurodegenerative diseases including AD. The new study is a tightly focused project that is tailored to address this research question directly.
Specifically, this study will: measure effects of AD-related genes on developmental differences in AD-vulnerable brain regions, quantify how genes affect development of functional brain networks that are later vulnerable to AD, and test developmental differences in AD-vulnerable cognitive abilities attributable to AD-related genes.
The PRANK study is significant because of the scope of Alzheimer’s disease. AD is a devastating, progressive neurological disorder that selectively degrades the cognition of many older adults — 6.1 million are living with AD in the US today and the estimated prevalence by 2050 is 12.7 million. Patients diagnosed with AD often live 8-10 years with the disease, but declines in memory and other cognitive abilities mean that patients face loss of independence and high costs of care (estimated to be $186 billion in 2018).
Dr. Warren’s project has the potential to identify early brain and cognitive differences associated with genetic AD risk. By measuring brain and cognitive variables longitudinally in healthy children who have different genetic risk profiles for late-onset AD, this research project could help to identify opportunities for early intervention to reduce the risk of developing late-onset AD. This would promote the key NIH goal of "understanding the complex interaction between genes and environment as it relates to Alzheimer’s risk."
If you are interested in learning more about the PRANK study or Dr. Warren’s lab, please contact them at WNL@unmc.edu or (402)559-3158.