Expanding and Enhancing LASI-DAD for Better Understanding of Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia

About the Research Project
Program
Award Type
Bold Ideas initiatives
Award Amount
$600,000
Active Dates
April 01, 2023 - March 31, 2025
Grant ID
CA2023001
Goals
The goal of this project is to enhance the project protocol through an additional validation study and a DNA methylation analysis
Summary
Our specific aims include:
- to perform high-quality venous blood-based assays of beta amyloid 42 and 40 (beta amyloid);
- to measure DNA methylation using stored DNA samples (methylation);
- to conduct a feasibility study of amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) scans across different geographic areas (PET scans); and
- to conduct a validation study, recruiting about 400 older adults from memory clinics, including those with Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, and cognitively normal.
Unique and Innovative
The Harmonized Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia for the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI-DAD) is the first and only nationally representative study on late-life cognition and dementia in India. We have drawn 4,096 community-residing older adults 60+ years of age, representing more than 600 ethnically and geographically diverse areas within 18 states and territories. Emerging evidence points to epigenetic mechanisms as a major underlying mechanism of aging that contributes to AD, and our proposed DNA methylation assays will provide the opportunity to further study epigenetic mechanism.
Foreseeable Benefits
The epigenetic data generated from this project will enable all interested researchers to study epigenetics of cognition and dementia. Further ascertainment of dementia status through the proposed validation study will enhance not only the quality of key outcome variable of interests for the project but also present an important methodological innovation for dementia epidemiology studies.