IU Researchers Advance Alzheimer's Study with New Brain Network Tools

Indiana University (IU) researchers are collaborating on a new approach that uses neuroimaging and network modelling tools previously developed to analyze the brains of patients in the clinic to study the progression of Alzheimer's disease in preclinical animal models.

The research team, led by Postdoctoral fellow Jevgeni Chumin, PhD, and in College of Arts and Sciences; Paul Territo, IU Bloomington's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and IU School of Medicine professor of medicine, published his findings in Alzheimer's disease and Dementia: Journal of the Alzheimer's Association. More than 6.5 million Americans 65 and older are affected by Alzheimer's disease, and that number could rise too nearly 14 million by 2060, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Although amyloid plaques and tau bundles are the two main hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, research also shows that Alzheimer's disease alters glucose metabolism in the brain.

This study examined changes in brain metabolic networks in animal models of Alzheimer's disease developed by the Development and Evaluation of Model Organisms for Late-onset Alzheimer's disease (MODEL-AD), IU School of Medicine Jackson Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh and Sage Bionetworks. Territo said the tools developed through this research collaboration provide a translational approach to assessing the progression of Alzheimer's disease in animal models and will support the consortium's rigorous animal model development and preclinical drug testing pipelines developed to study and treat the disease.

"We have now, for the first time, created tools to evaluate mouse models containing human genes based on the well-established Brain Connectivity Toolbox used in human studies," said Territo. "We are using these tools to better understand the progression and response to Alzheimer's disease and are adding them as a resource to MODEL-AD."