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NIA awards $10.3 million to study Alzheimer's disease in women

The National Institute on Aging recently awarded a $10.3 million 5-year program project grant to Roberta Diaz Brinton, PhD, of the University of Arizona Health Sciences, and her colleagues to assess why women develop Alzheimer’s disease more often than men.

“The greatest risk factors for Alzheimer’s are age, the female sex and genetics, specifically the APOE4 gene,” Brinton said in a press release. “Women constitute more than 60% of those with Alzheimer’s disease, and more than 50% of persons with Alzheimer’s are positive for the APOE4 gene. If positive for a single copy of the APOE4 gene, women are at greater risk than men who have two copies of the APOE4 gene.”

Brinton and colleagues will continue to conduct their Perimenopause in Brain Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Program project to identify underlying mechanisms of higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease in women with APOE4.

They hope to translate their discoveries into therapeutic strategies to combat increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease in women.

“Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease that impacts everyone, from the patient to the families who care for them, at great cost emotionally and financially. The incidence of Alzheimer's is expected to nearly triple by 2050, if we don’t discover ways to prevent or cure this disease,” Joe G. N. ‘Skip’ Garcia, MD, senior vice president for health sciences at the University of Arizona Health Sciences, said in the release. “Dr. Brinton and her team are at the cutting edge of Alzheimer's research, the aging female brain and regenerative therapeutics. The impact of their exciting work will result in a better understanding of the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, the development of novel new therapies, and — potentially — a cure for women and men patients with this debilitating disease.”