Virginia Lee & John Trojanowski on the Protein Road Map to Alzheimer's
Special Topic of Alzheimer's Disease Interview, December 2011
Lee wants funding to go not just for research but for education in science to sustain the country's future in research. "Over the past 20 years," she says, "we've had people coming from other countries to study here and stay here because there were better opportunities. But things are changing, and if we're not careful, not only will those people leave, but if we're not training others from within, there won't be anyone left to solve diseases like Alzheimer's disease."
Trojanowski cautions, "I would say that if we don't get going full steam ahead now, as a nation, all of these research investments, all the technology we've put hard-earned American dollars behind over the years will drift off shore to places like China and India, and they will reap the benefits of the investments that we have made finding targets for Alzheimer's drugs. Not only is the threat of untreated Alzheimer's an economic issue, I would say the loss of the scientific advantage is both an economic threat and a national security threat. We have to be in control of making our own drugs and marketing them for a huge problem that affects many, many people. We have concerns for the next generation of Americans who may be impoverished for many, many reasons."
...AND WHERE CAN WE GO NEXT
There are also non-therapeutic options to consider for Alzheimer's prevention, and Lee and Trojanowski are looking into these as well. It is thought that embracing more healthy lifestyles can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's. "Some studies suggest that if you exercise regularly and stay socially connected, you can not only improve your general health, but you can also help in terms of reducing the risk for Alzheimer's," Lee says, "Thus, there may be things other than a pill that will help people stay sharp—going to a museum, going out to lunch with friends, generally doing active things, engaging your brain."
"Some studies suggest that if you exercise regularly and stay socially connected, you can not only improve your general health, but you can also help in terms of reducing the risk for Alzheimer's…" –Virginia Lee
"There are a lot of epidemiological studies that support these views, but they don't prove cause and effect," Trojanowski says. "What we need to start today is a five- to ten-year clinical trial of these lifestyle changes. If we had $50 million, we could begin to test if these activities have a powerful effect, that they do what the epidemiological studies suggest, and perhaps delay the onset of Alzheimer's by five years. It would be a big advance if through lifestyle practices that everyone can do with very little money, we could reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's disease and this strategy could save millions of lives and many more millions of dollars in healthcare costs just by embracing these lifestyles.
"Why can't we as a nation wake up and say, 'This is an obvious trial we should be doing yesterday?' We still don't have the resources. This is something so obvious to do for very little money, compared to the current and future cost of Alzheimer's disease and it could have such a powerful effect."
"We know a lot about normal aging, and we learned a lot about the disease process over the past 20 years," Lee says. "I really think we could be optimistic about the future but the major problem is that it takes so long to see efficacy of an intervention because the disease is so slow progressing."
"I think, really, looking at the history of Alzheimer's, I would say probably in the next decade, there will be therapeutic interventions coming along from the clinical trials, really truly coming up with drugs that will work, disease-modifying therapies. I think it is safe to say that in the next decade we will be able to modify the course of Alzheimer's disease," Lee concludes.
"And we are pushing that," Trojanowski adds. "Ten years ago most of our studies were very fundamental, mechanistic-oriented, and they've gradually become more and more translational. We now have an academic biotech-like program at Penn—academic because we're nonprofit, we operate with grants, foundation money, and gifts from donors—and we do all the chemistry and modeling trying to identify targets like a biotech company. We also partner with other firms in research that yields shared intellectual property.
"This is, we believe, the way to move science out of the labs and across the great divide known as the 'valley of death' between basic science discoveries and translation of that science into meaningful interventions for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease as well as frontotemporal degeneration and Lou Gehrig's disease. We're extremely serious about this and, we're putting our money where our mouths are because we are determined to do everything we can do to advance therapies and biomarkers in order to help patients."
Virginia M.-Y. Lee, Ph.D., M.B.A
John Q. Trojanowski, M.D., Ph.D.
Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA, USA
VIRGINIA LEE AND JOHN TROJANOWSKI'S MOST CURRENT MOST-CITED PAPERS IN ESSENTIAL SCIENCE INDICATORS:
- Lee VMY, Goedert T, Trojanowski JQ, "Neurodegenerative tauopathies," Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 24: 1121-59, 2001 with 841 cites.
- Freed CR, et al., “Transplanation of embryonic dopamine neurons for severe Parkinson’s disease,” N. Engl. J. Med. 344(10): 710-19, 8 March 2001 with 928 cites.
Source: Essential Science Indicators from Clarivate.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
- Read a Science Watch® Newsletter Interview (2007) with Virginia Lee.
KEYWORDS: ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE, BABY BOOMERS, DEMOGRAPHICS, DISEASE PROTEINS, BETA-AMYLOID, TAU, ALPHA-SYNUCLEIN, PARKINSON’S DISEASE, DRUG TARGETS, LEWY BODIES, PROGRESSIVE SUPRANUCLEAR PALSY, FRONTAL TEMPORAL LOBE DEGENERATION, ALS, HUMAN BRAIN, BIOMARKERS, AV45, TANGLES, PLAQUES, FUNDING, DELAY ONSET, SCIENTIFIC ADVANTAGE, LIFESTYLE CHANGES, EPIDEMIOLOGY, TRANSLATIONAL STUDIES.