PhD students participating in August Krogh seminars receive 0,2 ECTS per seminar
CWS / AKC Seminar: A new class of antidiabetics may be broad-spectrum Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics
August Krogh Club Seminar
Associate Professor of Neurosurgery Konrad Talbot, PhD
Cedars-Sinai Medical School, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Abstract
Among the great challenges of 21st century medicine is finding effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a neurodegenerative dementia whose prevalence is growing so rapidly that it threatens to overwhelm healthcare systems in a few decades. While clinical trials on conventional AD drug targets (Aβ and its synthetic enzymes) have failed, a very promising new target for treatment has emerged, namely brain insulin resistance. This abnormality alone can cause or promote many of the key pathological and cognitive features of AD.
Using a novel ex vivo stimulation method, our group has shown that insulin resistance is a common and profound feature in brains of AD cases even in the absence of diabetes. We have now discovered that insulin resistance is also advanced in brains of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) cases, which often progress to AD dementia, and that this abnormality can be substantially reduced in brains of both MCI and AD dementia cases with one or more of the antidiabetics known as incretin receptor agonists, including liraglutide and a dual incretin receptor agonist. Such drugs are already known to markedly reduce a broad spectrum of pathologies and cognitive deficits in animal models of AD. The speaker will discuss these discoveries and their potential to produce the first effective treatment of AD.
Relevant papers
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Talbot K, Wang HY, Kazi H, Han LY, Bakshi KP, Stucky A, Fuino RL, Kawaguchi KR, Samoyedny AJ, Wilson RS, Arvanitakis Z, Schneider JA, Wolf BA, Bennett DA, Trojanowski JQ, Arnold SE. Demonstrated brain insulin resistance in Alzheimer's disease patients is associated with IGF-1 resistance, IRS-1 dysregulation, and cognitive decline. J Clin Invest. 2012 Apr;122(4):1316-38. doi: 10.1172/JCI59903.
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Talbot K, Eidem WL, Tinsley CL, Benson MA, Thompson EW, Smith RJ, Hahn CG, Siegel SJ, Trojanowski JQ, Gur RE, Blake DJ, Arnold SE. Dysbindin-1 is reduced in intrinsic, glutamatergic terminals of the hippocampal formation in schizophrenia. J Clin Invest. 2004 May;113(9):1353-63.
- Talbot K, Wang H-Y. The nature, significance, and GLP-1 analogue treatment of brain insulin resistance in Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s & Dementia 2014 Feb;10(1 Suppl):S12-S25.
Research profile
Dr. Talbot is a leader in the discovery of brain insulin resistance in Alzheimer's disease, its molecular basis, cognitive consequences, and potential treatment with a new class of antidiabetics, which may provide the first effective treatment of Alzheimer's disease in general.
Furthermore, Dr. Talbot has contributed in the discovery of reduced dysbindin-1 in schizophrenia and its contributions to cognitive deficits in that disorder.
Time
20 April 2015
14:30-15:30: Seminar and discussion
15:30-16:00: Post seminar servings and socializing
Venue
Auditorium 1, August Krogh Building, Universitetsparken 13, DK-2100 Copenhagen
Registration
Participation is free, but please register here.
For PhD students
PhD students participating in August Krogh seminars receive 0,2 ECTS per seminar
Contact
Christian Frøsig, CFrosig@nexs.ku.dk, mobile +45 2875 1617
