Do inflammatory mechanisms cause Alzheimers disease following brain injury?
Fellowship grant Division of Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh Grant amount: £179,000 Start date: January 2006 Expected completion date: January 2009 People who have had severe head or whiplash injuries appear to have a threefold increased chance of developing dementia. Post-mortem studies in patients with a history of head injury have shown an increased incidence of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. There is a prolonged period of inflammation following head injury and Dr Fowler will investigate how the chemical processes initiated by this inflammation may lead to formation of plaques and tangles in animal models and she will also investigate whether there is any correlation between early AD pathology and inflammatory cells and chemical markers observed following head injury in human post mortem brain tissue from people who died following brain injury. There are reports that treatment with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), normally used to relieve pain and
