DEMENTIA AUSTRALIA
A new national research centre will spend the next five years investigating vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID), with scientists hoping earlier diagnosis and better management of its risk factors could reduce the number of Australians developing dementia.
VCID is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease, accounting for up to one in four cases and contributing to about half of cases where dementia has multiple underlying causes.
But unlike many other causes of dementia, a significant number of the risk factors associated with VCID can potentially be changed.
The new NHMRC-funded Centre of Research Excellence in Vascular Contributions to Dementia will bring together Australian researchers from fields including neurology, cardiovascular medicine, stroke, endocrinology, geriatrics, genetics, brain imaging and artificial intelligence.
Led by UNSW Sydney Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing Co-Director Scientia Professor Perminder Sachdev, the centre will investigate ways to improve the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of vascular dementia.
“If we can better understand and control the vascular causes of dementia, we have a real opportunity to reduce the burden of dementia in Australia and globally,” Prof Sachdev said.
One of the major challenges is identifying people at risk early enough to intervene.
Researchers will investigate blood, brain imaging and retinal biomarkers which could allow vascular changes associated with cognitive decline to be found sooner and diagnosed more accurately.
The team will also examine genetic and population-specific risk factors while using artificial intelligence and multi-omics technologies to search for potential new drug targets.
Ultimately, researchers hope the work can produce prevention strategies capable of being implemented well beyond Australia.
Previous work through the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing has included development of internationally agreed diagnostic criteria for VCID, new brain imaging biomarkers and Australia’s first Heart-Brain Study.
