Ulf Bronas
Georgetown University, DC·Medicine & Clinical Research
People with chronic kidney disease (CKD), a long-term loss of kidney function, show signs of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias about 10 years earlier than people of the same age and sex without CKD. Among older adults with CKD, 20 to 50% experience faster thinking and memory decline.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Neuroscience
Physiology
- Topics
chronic kidney disease
cognitive decline
mild cognitive impairment
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2028
What they work on
- Test whether a 6-month home-based walking program improves executive function and other areas of thinking in 116 older adults with chronic kidney disease and mild cognitive impairment, compared with an attention control group.
- Examine whether age, sex, degree of cognitive impairment and other illnesses change how much exercise improves thinking after 6 months.
- Measure with MRI how exercise changes white matter integrity, functional connectivity between brain regions, brain blood flow and hippocampal volume, and whether total exercise amount explains gains in thinking.
More about the research
The disease itself damages the brain's white matter, the wiring that links brain regions. It also speeds the shrinking of the hippocampus, a region essential for memory, and lowers blood flow to the brain. Current memory drugs help only a little, cause side effects and must be given at lower doses in CKD. Non-drug treatments are therefore needed.
Why it matters
Dementia leads to poor health, trouble following medical care, loss of independence and early move to nursing homes, and older adults with CKD face it unusually early. If home-based walking protects brain structure and thinking, it could become a low-cost, drug-free way to prevent or delay cognitive decline in these patients. Over the long term, the work could help build community exercise programs for other people at risk of dementia.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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University of Pittsburgh, PA·Neuroscience
Test whether 12 months of aerobic exercise in the IGNITE trial changes cerebrovascular pulsatility and brain blood flow in adults aged 65–80, and whether these changes mediate improvements in cognition.
David Ziegler
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Psychology
Determine the minimum effective dose of MediTrain, a closed-loop digital meditation program that trains focused attention, for improving cognitive control and reducing stress in older adults, using a nationwide mobile randomized controlled trial of 3,240 participants.
Tanvi Bhatt
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), mild pulses that contract the quadriceps of the weaker leg, improves stability and limb support during 12 sessions of treadmill reactive balance training in people with moderate to severe chronic stroke.
The school
Georgetown University: 14 labs on PI Pages, $377M a year on research, 206 research doctorates a year.
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