Studying Body's Defense System to Find Treatments for Alzheimer's

Health & Wellness

Studying Body’s Defense System to Find Treatments for Alzheimer’s

By
Dana Sparks

November 12, 2013

Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida, the University of Florida in Gainesville, and the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle have received a $7.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to take a new and more expanded approach to identifying drug targets to treat and possibly prevent Alzheimer’s disease. The investigators are working together to understand the role that innate immunity — the body’s defense system — plays in Alzheimer’s disease, a disorder of dementia that is rapidly increasing as the population ages.

Neurologist and neuroscientist Nilufer Taner, M.D.,Ph.D., says, “Our goal is to understand exactly if and when an innate immune response is good, and when it is bad, and to identify drug targets that enhance this protective effect and shut down the destructive side of this inflammation.”

Click here for news release.

Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Taner are available in the downloads.