Meningeal Lymphatics and Immunity in Alzheimer's Disease
Description: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is associated with aging and with dysfunction of the immune system, among other factors. CNS is an ‘immune-privilege’ organ and, therefore, there are no immune cells in the parenchyma. CNS parenchyma is also devoid of lymphatic vessels, but our lab has recently discovered lymphatic vessels in the meninges. These vessels serve the role of CNS drainage and their function is impaired with aging. We hypothesize that impaired lymphatics function would result in aggregation of meningeal Ab, triggering the immune response, which in turn may interfere with brain function. Our goal is to identify biomarkers in the CSF/meninges that correlate with early onset of cognitive impairment in AD and to target meningeal lymphatics therapeutically to slow down AD progression.
Funder: National Institute on Aging
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: RF1
Start date: 2017-09-15
End date: 2022-08-31
Investigator: JONATHAN KIPNIS
Institution: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Funded outputs count: 17
Funder award ID: RF1AG057496
OpenAlex ID: G168049635