Are Obesity and Alzheimer’s Linked? KGI Professor Awarded Grant to Find Out
Derick Han
Claremont, Calif., Oct. 16, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — One of the most devastating diseases to affect the brain could potentially be linked to the liver, and Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Pharmacology Derick Han has been awarded a $405,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to find out. Han’s research aims to determine how obesity can affect the relationship between the liver and brain to induce or promote the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Obesity and diets consisting of high fat and high sugar are risk factors for Alzheimer’s Disease, though it is not fully understood why this correlation exists. What is known is that obesity affects the liver, and a fatty liver can create problems that make their way up to the brain. Han will use techniques like spatial proteomics –– observing the localization of key proteins in different regions of the brain and liver to assess how obesity affects the liver-brain axis.
“The liver takes care of the brain through metabolic regulation and the removal of toxic molecules,” says Han. “Thus, if the liver is injured from fatty liver disease associated with obesity, it is likely that it will have an impact on Alzheimer’s disease.”
Han is partnering with former KGI colleague Rachita Sumbria, now an associate professor in Chapman University’s School of Pharmacy, on this research. Han and Sumbria are completing a five-year grant from NIH investigating the role of alcohol-induced liver damage in the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease.
“Our previous NIH grant helped us identify important liver proteins that may play a key role in Alzheimer’s disease promoted by alcohol intake,” says Han. “We will see if these same liver proteins play a role in Alzheimer’s disease linked with obesity.”
Han and Sumbria have identified that liver steatosis caused by chronic alcohol consumption negatively affects hepatic lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1, known as LRP1 –– which is important in removing amyloid-β (Aβ), the toxic protein important in the development of Alzheimer’s Disease –– and simultaneously increases hepatic amyloid precursor protein (APP), which is an important source of Aβ in the brain. Understanding how liver steatosis caused by obesity modulates liver LRP1 and APP to promote Alzheimer’s Disease will be a central goal of Han’s research.
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