Millions of people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Patients decline mentally and physically while slowly fading out of life.
Despite intense research efforts, Alzheimer’s disease is still a mystery, and disease-modifying therapies are desperately needed in the clinic.
On a molecular level, Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by excessive accumulation of the neurotoxic peptides Aβ and tau in the brain causing neurodegeneration and dementia. We discovered that Aβ and tau are key drivers of blood-brain barrier dysfunction. A leaky and dysfunctional barrier, in turn, contributes to Alzheimer’s disease pathology suggesting a vicious, perpetual feedback loop. However, therapeutic strategies that repair Aβ/tau-induced barrier dysfunction are not available. Our goal is to establish a mechanism-based intervention that targets Aβ/tau to treat barrier dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. Our disease-modifying strategy is designed specifically to enhance Aβ and tau removal from the brain, which holds the promise to delay onset and slow progression of Alzheimer’s disease.