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Focusing on deep sleep-wake brain regions in the context of Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis: a multi-modal, high-resolution neuroimaging approach

Project description

A closer look at sleep’s role in Alzheimer’s early detection

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) poses a growing public health crisis, particularly within our aging population. Emerging research highlights sleep as a critical factor in slowing AD’s progression, particularly concerning the accumulation of amyloid-beta and tau proteins, as well as neurodegeneration. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ADEEPSLEEP project aims to explore this connection, focusing on the brain regions that regulate sleep, which are among the first affected by AD. This innovative project uses advanced neuroimaging techniques to study how disruptions in sleep-wake cycles contribute to AD’s early stages. The findings could pave the way for earlier detection and intervention, offering hope in the fight against this devastating disease.

Objective

The increased prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in our ageing society constitutes an urgent, far-reaching public health concern. In the worldwide effort to identify leverage points to prevent or delay the onset of AD, sleep has recently emerged as a potent modifiable factor to slow down the hallmark pathophysiological processes of the disease, namely amyloid-beta and tau protein accumulation together with neurodegeneration. Crucially, the brain regions that regulate sleep and wakefulness are the first to be affected by AD pathology in the preclinical stages of the disease, but their role in the link between sleep-wake disruption and AD pathogenesis has so far been critically overlooked, due to the inherent difficulty to image them in vivo in humans. In this project, I will take an innovative approach, by using state-of-the-art multimodal neuroimaging methods to investigate the contribution of these brain regions to sleep-wake quality in the earliest stages of the disease, and ultimately to AD-related trajectories. The underlying hypothesis is that worse structural and functional integrity of key sleep-wake nuclei will be associated with poorer sleep-wake phenotypes in the context of AD pathology, and will in turn hasten clinical symptomatology. The unmatched scientific expertise and resources provided by the team of Prof. Johnson at Massachusetts General Hospital will constitute an outstanding multidisciplinary environment to further develop my knowledge in advanced neuroimaging techniques and statistical modeling approaches, and to bolster my multifaceted international research network. The wide range of scientific and management skills acquired throughout this fellowship, combined with the international exposure and the resulting close collaborations between European and American research groups, will be key for my future career in Europe as an independent researcher contributing to the global endeavour to improve the earliest detection and prevention of AD.

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 272 536,32
Address
MINDERBROEDERSBERG 4
6200 MD Maastricht
Netherlands

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Region
Zuid-Nederland Limburg (NL) Zuid-Limburg
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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