It's in your blood: understanding memory loss when blood vessels malfunction.

Cardiovascular disease is the number 1 killer. Nearly 7 million people in the UK have high blood pressure and over half of adults have raised cholesterol. These lifestyle factors increase the risk of developing several heart conditions. There is increasing awareness that these vascular risk factors also have dramatic consequences for the brain and can increase the risk of stroke and dementia. This project aims to investigate the underlying mechanisms by which blood vessels may impact memory.

The overall hypothesis is that brain endothelial cells, which line blood vessels and traffic oxygen and nutrients from the blood to the brain, respond to vascular risk factors by initiating a pro-inflammatory response. This response leads to changes in brain glial cell metabolism, neurodegeneration and cognitive problems.

We will investigate this using a cell to whole organism approach that includes cutting edge imaging techniques to observe changes in the brain alongside examination of key underpinning endothelial cell signalling mechanisms that influence glial cell metabolism.