The Horizon 2020-funded PRIME project ("Prevention and Remediation of Insulin Multimorbidity in Europe") aims to unravel how brain disorders throughout life can be traced to alterations in insulin signalling and how this relates to type 2 diabetes and obesity. Last month, PRIME organised a webinar for its project partners, entitled “Alzheimer’s Disease pathophysiology and vascular contributions”. Angela Bradshaw (Project Officer) attended for Alzheimer Europe.
During the webinar, Prof. Pieter Jelle Visser of Maastricht University gave an overview of Alzheimer’s disease pathophysiology and diagnostics. He explained how our understanding of AD has progressed since Alois Alzheimer first identified the condition in 1906, and showed how tests that measure different biomarkers can help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease more accurately and earlier. Next, Veerle van Gils discussed the vascular contributions to Alzheimer’s disease and its related cognitive decline, presenting her latest findings on the association between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.
These findings indicate that older people with diabetes may have an altered risk profile for Alzheimer’s disease. She underlined that there are multiple vascular risk factors that may contribute to increased Alzheimer’s disease diagnoses, such as cardiovascular disease and hypertension as well as diabetes. PRIME receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 847879.
