Testing

The Rise of Alzheimer’s Disease

We’re getting older.

That statement is true for every person, every day, but also represents a population trend. People are living longer, and birth rates are slowing across the western world. As a result, the age of the average person is steadily increasing.

The trend is expected to continue and brings with it other issues. For instance, it should come as no surprise that age-related diseases are leading causes of death in an aging population. These include things like cancer, heart disease and dementia. And while there are effective treatments, in some cases, for cancer and heart disease, none exist for dementia. 

The most generic form of dementia, by far, is Alzheimer’s disease. In Alzheimer’s, specific brain proteins form clumps that are toxic to the brain’s tissues. These clumps are thought to cause a significant decrease in mental ability and can eventually result in death. 

Obesity, type 2 Diabetes and AD According to the CDC, 41.9% of Americans suffer from obesity. The CDC also estimates that, by 2030, 33% of Americans could have diabetes, with most of those cases being type 2 diabetes (T2D). Obesity and T2D are associated with several lethal age-related diseases, including AD. This is because obesity and T2D disrupt the balance between healthy and toxic patterns in the body, like cellular stress and inflammation, by changing how the body responds to important chemical signals, like insulin or through nutritional deficiencies like a lack of antioxidants. People who are overweight, have obesity, or T2D are more likely to develop AD and estimates suggest up to 80% of AD patients have T2D, suggesting a link between the factors that drive obesity, T2D and AD. 

Obesity, diabetes, nutrition, AD and mathematics research intersect at Texas Tech in the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, the US government called on researchers to consider how modifiable risk factors, like better nutrition, decreased obesity and T2D, can help to delay age-related diseases, like AD, for all Americans. “Experiments conducted in the Department of Nutritional Sciences have already shown that obesity and diet may be linked to AD” says Horn Distinguished Professor Naı̈ma Moustaı̈d-Moussa.  As Texas Tech University’s (TTU) Associate Vice President for Research and the Director of TTU’s Obesity Research Institute (ORI), Professor Moustaı̈d-Moussa and her colleagues are leading the way with experiments, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that examine how diet and factors related to obesity link to AD. “In our recently published results, we showed that dietary fish oil reduced levels of inflammation and toxic proteins that accumulate in the brain and are thought to cause AD”.  She goes on to share that “we have several views on how the inflammation and cellular stresses of obesity and T2D may lead to developing AD”. Associate Professor Vijay Hegde, an NIH funded pioneer in the use of diabetic drugs to treat AD and cancer, adds “too much insulin, like we see in T2D, may also switch on certain signals in the brain that make the harmful proteins in AD even worse. In addition, too much insulin can make it more difficult for your brain to get rid of these toxic proteins before they can start to do real damage.”

Mathematics for the mind The project draws on the collective interdisciplinary experience of Thompson, Moustaı̈d-Moussa and Hegde to develop new mathematical models that can connect cellular stress, inflammation and insulin imbalance, hallmarks of obesity and T2D, to AD and new scientific computing tools that can solve these types of models while integrating experimental and AD patient data. Mathematically, they will use high-dimensional systems of differential equations posed on human brain networks, like the one pictured above; Thompson first worked with these types of systems during his time at Oxford University. They will also develop computing tools that help researchers define and solve complex network dynamics models for their own research. “We can analyze several attributes of these systems using pen-and-paper mathematics alone.  With the right computing tools, we can also study how these complex systems evolve, like AD in the brain of patients with diabetes or obesity, using large simulations that bring real data into the models by using machine learning methods”, Thompson says. The road will not be easy, though. To help with this formidable challenge, Thompson, Moustaı̈d-Moussa and Hegde have recruited TTU mathematics Ph.D. student, Hildebrand Fellow and Presidential Merit Scholar, Mr. Bradley Vigil in addition to Presidential Merit Scholar, CISER Scholar, TrUE Scholar and Honors College mathematics undergraduate Mr. Robert Young. “We are truly lucky to have the interdisciplinary talents of Mr. Vigil and Mr. Young on the project team. They know the math, they know computing and they learn the medical side so quickly; it is quite impressive what they can do”, says Thompson, to which Toda adds “We are incredibly proud of the research being done by our mathematics graduates and undergraduates. TTU has exceptional students and the work they do every day is making progress on the significant scientific challenges, like AD, that we face as a society”.