Generating preliminary data on infectious agents in brain and fluid specimens

This research investigates the potential role of infectious agents in Alzheimer’s disease and age-related neurodegeneration aiming to generate preliminary data on infectious agents in brain and fluid specimens. The investigators will examine how respiratory pathogens and other infectious agents may interact with the aging brain, influence blood–brain barrier integrity and contribute to cerebrovascular disease and chronic neurodegenerative processes.

The project will advance understanding of whether infectious agents can be detected in brain tissue and cerebrospinal or other fluid specimens from aging individuals and those with Alzheimer-like pathology, and how such findings might link to neuroinflammatory pathways, blood–brain barrier changes and downstream cytoskeletal and protein-modification events associated with neurodegeneration. Such preliminary findings would inform hypotheses about the “pathogen hypothesis” of Alzheimer’s disease and help prioritize targets for more extensive mechanistic work, epidemiologic investigation or therapeutic exploration. Results from this work would also clarify the presence, distribution and potential pathological relevance of infectious agents in brain and fluid specimens, thereby guiding subsequent research into infection-associated contributors to Alzheimer’s disease and age-related neurodegenerative disorders.