Bernard G. Schreurs
West Virginia University, WV·Neuroscience
After menopause, women are more likely than men to develop late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD), and their memory problems tend to be worse. High cholesterol in midlife is a major risk factor for the disease.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Pharmacology
Physiology
- Topics
Alzheimer's disease
sex differences
estrogen
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Test whether removing or restoring estrogen changes memory, neural function and Alzheimer's-like pathology in intact and castrated male and intact and ovariectomized female cholesterol-fed rabbits.
- Manipulate 27-hydroxycholesterol (27-OHC), a cholesterol breakdown product that acts on estrogen receptors, to test its role in memory deficits and beta amyloid buildup in cholesterol-fed rabbits.
- Test whether modulating estrogen receptors can rescue memory and reduce beta amyloid and tau levels, using behavioral, electrophysiological, histochemical and molecular techniques.
More about the research
How the hormone estrogen and cholesterol interact to shape these sex differences is poorly understood. This project studies that question in rabbits fed a high-cholesterol diet, an unusual but promising animal model of LOAD that does not rely on genetic engineering.
Why it matters
High midlife cholesterol is a common risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, and women after menopause are especially affected. By clarifying how estrogen, cholesterol and its metabolite 27-OHC interact, this work could point to estrogen receptor-targeted treatments and help explain why men and women differ in Alzheimer's risk and response to therapy.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Wenzhang Wang
Case Western Reserve University, OH·Neuroscience
Determine whether and how abnormally increased contacts between mitochondria and the endolysosomal system cause mitochondrial defects in Alzheimer's disease neurons, using in vivo and in vitro disease models.
Giuseppina Tesco
Tufts University, MA·Neuroscience
Test whether the ABCA7 p.Ala1527Gly variant lowers ABCA7 protein levels and causes loss of function in iPSC-derived human excitatory neurons, measuring Aβ42/40 ratios, a readout of harmful amyloid-β.
Julie Saugstad
Oregon Health & Science University, OR·Neuroscience
Characterize the size and surface marker proteins of cerebrospinal fluid extracellular vesicles from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and control participants, comparing females vs. males and APOE-e4 vs. APOE-e3 carriers.
The school
West Virginia University: 15 labs on PI Pages, $259M a year on research, 201 research doctorates a year.
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