MLD announces new collaboration with Dr. Marie-Eve Tremblay at the University of Victoria
MLD is excited to announce a collaboration with Dr. Marie-Eve Tremblay at the Division of Medical Sciences, University of Victoria. Through this collaboration, MLD will evaluate the ability of our lead therapeutic candidates to protect against neurodegeneration in an animal model of the sporadic or late-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease, which affects over 90% of patients. Systemic administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) will be used to mimic the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease including inflammation, accumulation of β-amyloid, neuronal loss, microglial reactivity, reduced plasmalogen levels, anxiety, and memory deficits. Although Alzheimer’s disease has been studied for many years, one hurdle faced by researchers in this field is the lack of a representative animal model. Most of the available animal models demonstrate a singular hallmark of the disease and not the range of symptoms and pathology that is experienced in human Alzheimer’s disease. One of the main reasons is that many of the models are based on genetic modifications that are often not present in the human manifestation of the disease.
Dr. Tremblay is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Neurobiology of Aging and Cognition. She is an expert in neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative diseases, and runs a research program at the University of Victoria which focuses on understanding the processes of cognitive aging. The group studies the microglial response to environmental risk factors (e.g., chronic stress, infection) and their involvement in the remodeling of neuronal circuits that leads to synaptic loss and cognitive decline along the aging trajectory. In addition to her extensive knowledge on immune cells, Dr. Tremblay has experience in a wide range of neuroimaging techniques and in conducting state-of-the-art behavioral assessments.
“It is exciting to have the opportunity to get back into Alzheimer’s disease research, especially with such a knowledgeable group. Our goal with this collaboration is to strengthen our understanding on the role of plasmalogens in the Alzheimer’s disease process and provide support for the hypothesis that plasmalogen replacement is a viable therapeutic strategy for the treatment of AD.” says Dr. Tara Smith, VP, Therapeutics.
“Plasmalogens are increasingly recognized as important mediators of healthy cognitive aging and represent a promising target for the highly prevalent sporadic or late-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease. Considering the available literature in the field, important outcomes on preventing Alzheimer’s disease hallmarks at molecular, cellular, and behavioral levels, are expected from this work. With my research team, we feel most privileged to contribute to this important research” says Dr. Tremblay.
The first step will be to determine whether pretreating with MLD’s plasmalogen replacement candidates is protective against the neuroinflammation caused by LPS administration. This will be evaluated through a series of behavioral tests, bioanalytical assessments, and histological analyses. If prevention is successful, further studies would be focused on determining if plasmalogen augmentation can repair the damage done by LPS.