Alexis Stranahan
Augusta University, GA·Neuroscience
Obesity and dementia share a common feature: neuroinflammation, a state in which the brain's immune and support cells, called glia, become reactive. In humans, an 'apple-shaped' body with fat stored around the organs (visceral fat) raises dementia risk.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Physiology
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
neuroinflammation
obesity
dementia risk
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Apr 2028
What they work on
- Test whether turning on complement in selected brain cell types is enough to cause neuroinflammation, using mice in which the complement brake Crry can be deleted on command in specific cell types.
- Determine whether sex differences in complement activation explain why males and females differ in synapse and behavior problems on obesity-causing diets, using male and female obese mice.
- Map glial reactivity across the whole brain of obese mice using machine-learning-based 3D reconstruction of glia in cleared brains.
- Test whether subcutaneous fat and the anti-inflammatory signal interleukin-4 protect against brain inflammation by manipulating fat and immune cells in cerebrospinal fluid with light-activated Cre switches and tamoxifen metabolites.
- Measure how these manipulations change brain immune cells and hippocampal function, using cleared-tissue mapping, single-cell flow cytometry, behavioral tests and electrophysiology.
More about the research
A 'pear-shaped' body with fat under the skin (subcutaneous fat) does not, and may even protect the brain. Males and females also differ. Females have stronger innate immunity, the body's fast, built-in defenses, and they respond differently to obesity-related disease. The lab's earlier studies in males traced signals that link inflammation in the body to inflammation in the brain. Its two current projects in mice fed obesity-causing diets ask how sex differences in immune signaling shape brain inflammation, synapse function and behavior.
Why it matters
The work aims to explain why apple-shaped, but not pear-shaped, body fat predicts dementia risk, and why males and females differ in brain vulnerability to obesity. Identifying how complement and IL-4 signaling drive or prevent brain inflammation could reveal new risk factors for cognitive decline in people with obesity. It could also point to brain structures for future noninvasive therapies.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Erin Taylor
Augusta University, GA·Physiology
Test whether extra visceral fat worsens lupus and hypertension through harmful immune cells in fat, by surgically or pharmacologically depleting fat or its immune cells in female NZBWF1 mice.
Nathaniel Jeske
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, TX·Neuroscience
Identify where pain-sensing neurons and immune cells interact after chronic intermittent hypoxia, using a rodent model that mimics obstructive sleep apnea together with in vivo imaging and behavioral tests of pain sensitivity.
Shelley J Russek
Boston University, MA·Neuroscience
Test whether STAT3 signaling in excitatory neurons drives epilepsy progression by silencing synaptic plasticity and neuroinflammation genes, using mice with neuron-specific STAT3 knockout in the intrahippocampal kainate model.
The school
Augusta University: 11 labs on PI Pages, $166M a year on research, 37 research doctorates a year.
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