What began as a simple conversation between colleagues has evolved into transdisciplinary research revealing a link between two well-known diseases.<\/p>\n
While Brock researchers Rebecca MacPherson and Val Fajardo were talking one day, the powerful idea emerged that muscle health and the brain are connected, leading to a promising research collaboration.<\/p>\n
Brain structures and functions are MacPherson\u2019s expertise. The Brock Associate Professor of Health Sciences studies how changes in protein regulation in the brain contribute to Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, muscle expert Fajardo, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, examines how overactivation of a particular enzyme<\/a> can lead to Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a disease characterized by progressive muscle wasting and weakness.<\/p>\n While it is known that patients with DMD can also exhibit declines in thinking and reasoning such as memory loss, lower IQ scores and confusion, how or why this occurs is unknown.<\/p>\n One of MacPherson\u2019s students came across a research paper<\/a> showing that people suffering with DMD also exhibit higher circulating amyloid-beta peptides, a hallmark characteristic of Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n \u201cThe production of amyloid-beta is something that we focus on in our research related to brain health,\u201d says MacPherson. \u201cSo, Val and I wondered if this is something that is changing in the brain with DMD. That’s how this collaboration all started.\u201d<\/p>\n Fajardo, Canada Research Chair in Tissue Remodelling and Plasticity throughout the Lifespan, and MacPherson pulled together a team of students, including a visiting international student, to study brain markers in animals modelling DMD and found similarities in the Alzheimer\u2019s disease process<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cInterestingly, the same protein that Val was targeting to improve muscle health in Duchenne muscular dystrophy is also found in the brain, and its activity is related to Alzheimer’s disease,\u201d says MacPherson.<\/p>\n