The answer to why women are almost twice as likely as men to develop late-onset Alzheimer\u2019s disease may lie in hormones.<\/p>\n
With the help of federal funding, Rebecca MacPherson (PhD \u201914) and her research team at Brock University are aiming to learn more about the link between the disease and a drop in estrogen in women.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a female is the second-greatest risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer\u2019s disease,\u201d says the Associate Professor of Health Sciences. \u201cMost Alzheimer\u2019s disease research focuses on males, so we don\u2019t fully understand why females are at greater risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
MacPherson and her team have made great strides in linking a protein<\/a>\u00a0called brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) to a biomarker in the brain that is related to Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n BDNF levels are lower in patients with Alzheimer\u2019s \u2014 and also, in post-menopausal women, says MacPherson.<\/p>\n To test out the association between estrogen loss and late-onset Alzheimer\u2019s disease, MacPherson and her team have received a $130,000 Biomedical Discovery Grant<\/a>\u00a0from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).<\/p>\n BDNF \u2014 which MacPherson calls \u201cbrain fertilizer,\u201d because it helps maintain healthy brain cells, as well as grow new ones \u2014 can reduce the production of small proteins called beta-amyloid.<\/p>\n Beta-amyloid clumps together and forms plaques in the brains of people living with Alzheimer\u2019s disease. These plaques damage the brain by blocking cell-signalling processes, among other effects.<\/p>\n The female hormone estrogen regulates BDNF levels, says MacPherson. But estrogen levels drop dramatically during the progression to menopause.<\/p>\n MacPherson and her team will study if and how targeting BDNF signalling in post-menopausal females will prevent the production of beta-amyloid that lead to Alzheimer\u2019s disease, and in the process, improve memory and maintain brain health.<\/p>\n She says one of the easiest ways to increase BDNF is through physical exercise.<\/p>\n \u201cBut for those who have physical or other limitations, it will be important to identify other methods that complement the benefits of exercise,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe majority of exercise-related research and recommendations are based on data collected from male participants,\u201d says MacPherson. \u201cHowever, males and females may respond differently to the same exercise or therapy, therefore, research should focus on alternative therapies that can reduce the detrimental effects of menopause.\u201d<\/p>\n The team will also study post-mortem human brain samples from male and female patients diagnosed with and without Alzheimer\u2019s to further explore the differences in male and female brains.<\/p>\n In addition to the greater risk of Alzheimer\u2019s disease with the onset of menopause in females, the risk for other health conditions is also increased. One example is sarcopenia, an age-associated disease characterized by muscle wasting and weakness.<\/p>\n \u201cInterestingly, muscle can also regulate BDNF content in the brain,\u201d says MacPherson, adding that part of the research will examine how menopause impacts muscle health, and how targeting muscle health in turn affects brain health.<\/p>\n Working on this with MacPherson is Val Fajardo (BSc \u201909, MSc \u201912)<\/span>, Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Canada Research Chair in Tissue Re-modelling and Plasticity Throughout the Lifespan.<\/p>\n Other team members that contributed to the grant include Kinesiology master\u2019s student Bianca Marcella and Health Sciences master\u2019s student Ahmad Mohammad.<\/p>\n CIHR\u2019s Biomedical Discovery Grant is a one-year, special opportunity under the National Women\u2019s Health Research Initiative co-led by CIHR. The initiative <\/b>aims to advance a co-ordinated research program that addresses under-researched and high-priority areas of women’s health<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The answer to why women are almost twice as likely as men to develop late-onset Alzheimer\u2019s disease may lie in hormones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":91278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,36,7484,7,3319,1,5],"tags":[13290,13289,423,2194,1696,996,13197,7488,13286,8562,13287,13288,6073,3325,15125,6074],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91276"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91280,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91276\/revisions\/91280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}