£2m grant for researchers to study dementia risks

A team of researchers from Cardiff, Bristol and Oxford University are set to begin investigating a genetic risk for dementia.

The scientists will study if healthy adults with APOE-e4, a gene variant associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s, show altered brain activity patterns and connectivity in brain circuits used for spatial navigation and memory.

Professor Kim Graham, from Cardiff University’s School of Psychology, said: “Understanding how risk factors for dementia lead to later life memory loss is critical to developing new therapies and preventative approaches for dementia.

“This information will generate sensitive cognitive tests and markers of brain function able to identify individuals at increased risk for dementia many years prior to the onset of memory difficulties.”

Dementia is estimated to cost the UK economy almost £25bn every year. If research could delay the onset of dementia by five years, the cost could be halved, said the researchers. The grant was awarded by the Medical Research Council.

The work will involve using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), comprised of more than 14,000 families in the Bristol area. The study will use powerful new scanners recently installed at Maindy Park in Wales.

Lyn Molloy, executive director at ALSPAC said: “This remarkable, intensely studied group of study participants are now entering their mid-twenties and this study will provide new insights into how brain changes at this age might be inked to increased dementia in later life.”