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2008 Grants - Feke
Objective Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease in the Retina
Gilbert T. Feke, Ph.D.
Retina Associates, Inc.
2008 Investigator-Initiated Research Grant
Because Alzheimer's is a progressive disease, much Alzheimer research has focused on identifying ways of detecting the disorder at its earliest stages. One part of the body, the retina of the eye, often suffers characteristic damage in people with Alzheimer's well before other disease symptoms appear. In earlier studies with individuals who had early-stage Alzheimer's, Gilbert T. Feke, Ph.D., and colleagues found that such retinal damage included the thinning of the retinal layer, the narrowing of the retinal veins and decreased blood flow to these veins.
For their proposed grant, Dr. Feke and colleagues hope to confirm their earlier results by testing a larger group of participants with early-stage Alzheimer's. They also plan to enroll and assess a group of participants with mild cognitive impairment, a condition that often precedes Alzheimer's disease. The researchers hypothesize that this second group will also show measurable, though less severe, retinal damage. Both groups of participants will be selected from the Boston University School of Medicine Alzheimer's Disease Center.
Results of Dr. Feke's study could lead to a precise, effective diagnostic test for Alzheimer's disease.