A two-year, $151,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health that was recently awarded to WMed will fund a research project aimed at treating and preventing Alzheimer’s disease.
The project, “Understanding the link between FAIM expression and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias,” is being led by Hiroaki Kaku, PhD, a research assistant professor in the Department of Investigative Medicine.
The work is part of more than a decade of study by Dr. Kaku to investigate Fas Apoptosis Inhibitory Molecule (FAIM) functions in immune cells. The ongoing research led to him studying neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Recently, in February, Dr. Kaku was also awarded a $200,000 grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research for a similar project exploring the role of FAIM in Parkinson’s disease.
“I used to study B lymphocyte functions and FAIM functions in immune cells for over 10 years but now I’m studying neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, which is a new field for me,” Dr. Kaku said. “In the process of studying FAIM function, I hypothesized that FAIM activity might be useful to prevent or treat neurodegenerative diseases.
“We have preliminary data but with this grant we can begin testing our hypothesis using samples from Alzheimer’s disease patients instead of samples from mice, which is a big step,” Dr. Kaku added.
FAIM protect cells from stress-induced death by preventing protein aggregation induced by cellularstress, Dr. Kaku said.Cells and tissues are continually exposed to cellular stress such as heat stress and oxidative stress, which causes cellular damages. Protein aggregates such as amyloid-beta and alpha-synuclein are majorcauses ofAlzheimer’s disease andParkinson’s disease.
Dr. Kaku said he is hopeful that the research he is conducting along with Thomas L. Rothstein, ², PhD, chair of the medical school’s Department of Investigative Medicine, will determine whether - or to what extent - FAIM affects Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis using human models, which may lead to new preventive and therapeutic options for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases.
“I am very excited,” Dr. Kaku said of his research and the new funding from the NIH. “I really appreciate Dr. Rothstein’s continuous support for this project.”
Dr. Kaku started his initial work on the FAIM in 2007 in order to determine its unknown role in the immune system. In the process, he discovered that FAIM protects cells from cellular stress by preventing protein aggregates/fibrils. More recently, he found that FAIM can prevent and reverse various protein aggregates including alpha-synuclein, which is the major hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
Going forward, Dr. Kaku said he plans to seek additional grants for his research as funding will continue to be needed to apply the activity of FAIM to clinical studies in the future.