NIH grant of $10.3 million to support URI neuroscientist's research on scanning the retina to detect early-stage Alzheimer's disease

NIH grant of $10.3 million to support URI neuroscientist's research on scanning the retina to detect early-stage Alzheimer's disease

Jessica Alber, assistant professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences at the George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rhode Island, wants to change the way doctors diagnose Alzheimer's disease, a change that could open up new treatment options.

Alber has received a five-year, $10.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to support her work using retinal imaging to look for early changes associated with Alzheimer's disease. The “Longitudinal validation of retinal biomarkers against cerebral imaging in preclinical Alzheimer's disease” project could help provide a cost-effective, minimally invasive screening technique to detect Alzheimer's disease before symptoms appear.

While there are currently no treatments that can slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer's disease, new developments in drug and lifestyle therapy indicate the potential for success with earlier intervention. However, one of the biggest challenges in treating the disease has been that it is difficult to diagnose. While clinicians can use positron emission tomography scanning or lumbar puncture to detect the buildup of amyloid and tau proteins, or "plaques and tangles," that are hallmarks of the disease, the procedures are both invasive and expensive. Using retinal imaging as a “window to the brain,” Alber and his collaborators are trying to develop a cheaper and more accessible screening tool that could potentially be part of a routine eye exam.

In the near future, screening for risks in the general population will become increasingly important to treat people before they experience the devastating loss of quality of life and cognitive function that affects them and their families. The retina allows us to study what is changing in the brain in a cost-effective and minimally invasive way to identify people who are at high risk but are not yet sick.”

Jessica Alber, Assistant Professor, George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rhode Island

The NIH grant builds on Albers’ work with the Atlas of Retinal Imaging in Alzheimer’s Study (ARIAS). Led by URI Vice President of Research and Economic Development Peter Snyder and Dr. Stuart Sinoff of Florida-based BayCare Health System launched the ARIAS study in 2020 to create a reference database of structural, anatomical and functional imaging of the retina to develop markers for the risk and progression of Alzheimer's disease.

In addition to validating the retinal imaging biomarkers identified in the ARIAS study, Albers' study, called ARIAS 2, will examine the potential for using blood plasma biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease along with retinal imaging techniques to provide greater sensitivity in detecting early-stage disease. “We don’t yet know whether blood biomarkers can be used to identify preclinical diseases, but we have seen some exciting developments in this field,” Alber said.

The ARIAS 2 study team is led by Alber. Other partners include Snyder, URI co-investigator; clinical site managers at Butler Hospital Memory and Aging Program, Washington University at St. Louis School of Medicine and University of North Texas Health Sciences Center in Fort Worth; Core Director at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School and all three clinical research centers; and employees at Heidelberg Engineering and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Founded in 2013, the George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience at URI focuses on research into little-understood factors in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.

ARIAS 2 study team

Jessica Albert, Ph.D., principal investigator; data management and administrative core management; Retina Imaging Core Lead, George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rhode Island.

Peter J. SnyderPh.D., co-investigator, University of Rhode Island.

Gregor Van StavernMD, Co-Investigator, Site Principal Investigator, Washington University at St. Louis.

Cyrus Raji, MD, co-investigator; Core Lead Brain Imaging, Washington University in St. Louis.

Tammie BenzingerMD, Ph.D., co-investigator, Washington University at St. Louis.

Beau AncesMD, Ph.D., co-investigator, Washington University at St. Louis.

Abraham SnyderMD, Ph.D., co-investigator, Washington University at St. Loui.

Shang Kwei songPh.D., co-investigator, Washington University at St. Louis.

Louise Thompson, Ph.D., co-investigator; Cognitive Core Lead, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Butler Hospital.

Meghan Riddle, MD, co-investigator; Site Principal Investigator, Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School, Butler Hospital.

Fenghai DuanPh.D., Biostatistics Core Director, Brown University.

Melissa Petersen, Ph.D., co-investigator; Blood Biomarker Core Lead, University of North Texas Health Sciences Center at Fort Worth.

Sima MozdbarOD, MPH, co-investigator, site director, University of North Texas Health Sciences Center at Fort Worth.

Stefanie GroßNP, co-investigator, University of North Texas Health Sciences Center at Fort Worth.

Brian FernandezMD, Consultant, Heidelberg Engineering.

Edmund ArthurOD, Ph.D., Consultant, University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Source:

University of Rhode Island

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