Alzheimer's Research Brochure

Be part of a new era in dementia research

AZ0131 Major donors brochure12pt 21.6.indd 1 25/06/2010 09:51

Over 820,000 people in the UK currently live with dementia

Alzheimer’s disease is not a natural part of the ageing process

25 million people, or 42% of the UK population, are affected by dementia through knowing a close friend or family member with the condition

Combined government and charitable investment in dementia research is 12 times lower than spending on cancer research

The Alzheimer’s Research Trust currently supports over 150 essental research projects across the UK.


Recent breakthroughs have opened up exciting new avenues for investigating – and finding a cure for – Alzheimer’s.

“It is very rare that a scientific research study grabs the headlines, or indeed is featured in Time magazine. That is why I am immensely proud that, with the support of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, a study had such an impact in 2009. That it did so is, I believe, not only evidence of the uniquely devastating impact of Alzheimer’s on peoples’ lives, it is also a reflection of the truly groundbreaking findings of Professor Julie Williams’ work in identifying, with colleagues, two new genes linked to Alzheimer’s.

It is also testament to all that can be achieved with the generosity and understanding of our supporters.

Professor Williams’ findings are a leap forward for dementia research. At a time when we are yet to find ways of halting this life-shattering condition, this development should spark off numerous new ideas, collaborations and more in the race for a cure. But for this to happen, it is vital to build on the momentum provided by this study and fund new research, starting right away. However, at present, it is sadly the case that the ART must turn down many highly promising research grant applications, with outstanding potential, for want of funding.

I sincerely hope you are able to help us change this and fund more scientists like Professor Williams as they redouble their efforts to better understand, and thereby treat and prevent, Alzheimer’s.

This work shows how British researchers lead the world in genetic research. With the right support for scientists like her, we can rewrite the future and offer hope to the 30 million people worldwide who live with dementia and countless millions more who will otherwise go on to develop it”

Rebecca Wood

Chief Executive, Alzheimer’s Research Trust

President:

The Countess of Onslow

Patrons:

Prof Gustav Born FRS

Lindsay Duncan

Sir Richard Eyre

Sir David Frost OBE

Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE

The Rt. Hon. the Baroness Jay

of Paddington PC

Jan Morgan

The Baroness Perry of Southwark

Joseph Pollock

Sir Terry Pratchett OBE

Sir Cliff Richard OBE

The Rt. Hon. Lord Robertson

of Port Ellen KT GCMG Hon. FRSE PC

June Spencer OBE

Dr Thomas Stuttaford OBE

The Rt. Hon. the Baroness Thatcher

LG OM FRS

Help us rewrite the future of dementia research


Over 820,000 people in the UK are living with dementia.

Alzheimer’s steals from a person what is perhaps the essence of who they are – their memories and how they interact with people and the world around them. Yet charitable spending on dementia research is twelve times lower than funding for cancer research. The Alzheimer’s Research Trust works to change this.

If we continue with genetic research, we could potentially prevent thousands of people developing dementia.



Alzheimer’s Research Trust: Rewriting the future since 1992


18 years of key discoveries funded and supported by the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.

Founded in 1992 by four members of the public shocked by the lack of funding for dementia research in the UK, the Alzheimer’s Research Trust has been at the forefront of pioneering advances in our understanding of the condition.

Today, thanks entirely to our supporters, we are the largest UK charity funder of dementia research, committing £3.7million in new grants in 2009-2010.

1988 A grant awarded to Dr Michel Goedert at Cambridge University

helps us understand how treatments might target the tangles that

build up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.

2002 An ART team based in Bristol begins screening 1.5 million

compounds and has since found 40, offering potential for

development into drugs to treat Alzheimer’s.

2003 Our Clinical Research Fellow in Edinburgh showed that a reading

test could help doctors to diagnose Alzheimer’s more accurately.

Early detection allows for current and future treatments to be

given to people as quickly as possible.

2006 ART scientists for the first time identify markers in blood samples

that indicate the development of Alzheimer’s. It paves the way to

develop a blood test that can diagnose Alzheimer’s earlier.

2008 Our scientists establish that sedatives, known as antipsychotics,

do not benefit most people with Alzheimer’s receiving them

long-term, and indeed increase the risk of death. The government

pledges to reduce their use by two-thirds.

2009 An international collaboration, led by Professor Julie Williams,

discovers two new genes linked to Alzheimer’s (see page 10).

“ So much progress has been made in dementia research that new drugs to slow or halt the progression of Alzheimer’s could be available within the next five to ten years”.

Professor Simon Lovestone, Scientific Adviser to the Alzheimer’s Research

Trust, King’s College London.


Millions of people are caring for loved ones with dementia.

The financial cost to the UK of dementia is staggering – currently £27,647 per person affected per year. The emotional impact of caring for somebody with Alzheimer’s is impossible to measure.

With your support, we could provide earlier testing and better treatment for her generation.



“Our research provides valuable new leads in the race to find treatments and possibly cures”.

Professor Julie Williams, the Alzheimer’s

Research Trust’s Chief Scientific Adviser.


In September 2009 Professor Julie Williams unveiled the discovery of two new genes linked to Alzheimer’s, the first such discovery for 17 years.

Here she explains their significance and potential.

“Previously, scientists had only been able to show that one gene – APOE4 – was definitely a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. We knew there had to be more, but to find out which genes they were was a major undertaking.

In collaboration with colleagues overseas we compared the genes of 16,000 people who had, or had not, developed Alzheimer’s. Excitingly, we were able to discover two new genes linked to the onset of Alzheimer’s; CLU and PICALM.

Both CLU and PICALM highlight new pathways that lead to Alzheimer’s disease. The CLU gene produces clusterin which normally acts to protect the brain in a variety of ways. Variation in this gene could remove this protection and contribute to Alzheimer’s development. PICALM is important at synapses – connections between brain cells – and is involved in the transport of molecules into and inside of nerve cells, helping form memories and other brain functions. We know that the health of synapses is closely related to memory performance in Alzheimer’s disease, thus changes in genes which affect synapses are likely to have a direct effect on disease development.

The discovery of the two new genes has changed our understanding of what causes the common form of Alzheimer’s disease and provides valuable new leads in the race to find treatments and possibly cures.

It also shows that other genes can be identified using this method, and we are already planning a larger study involving 60,000 people which can be achieved within the next year.”

New genetic discovery can help rewrite the future of people at risk of Alzheimer’s


The last time we had a breakthrough like this, she wasn’t even born.

The discovery of new genes linked to Alzheimer’s is a landmark in research. It paves the way to build up a fuller picture of how genes and environmental factors interact to increase a person’s chances of getting Alzheimer’s. It could lead to the development of new diagnostic tools, treatments and even a cure.

With your support, we could cure dementia for her generation.



“Our findings are turning established wisdom on its head“

Professor Julie Williams


We must not let slip this opportunity to transform our knowledge of Alzheimer’s.

We are on the threshold of a revolution in how we understand Alzheimer’s. Our task now is to reach the point where we can develop treatments, screening and eventually a cure. To do so, we urgently need to focus on investigating three critical areas highlighted by Professor Williams’ work.

While we are now discovering which genes indicate the likelihood of a person developing Alzheimer’s, it is not the case that everybody with those genes will develop the disease. So we have to focus on the mechanisms of the genes. It is likely that a number of risk factors – which could be associated with lifestyle or environment – may be involved. Their accumulation could lead to a trigger point where the disease develops. Knowing what this trigger point is means we can work to stop people ever reaching it.

We also need to look more closely at inflammation. We’ve known for a while that people with Alzheimer’s have inflammation in their brains around the centres for the functions that are affected, such as memory. But previously we’d believed the inflammation was a result of Alzheimer’s. Professor Williams’ and her colleagues work has told us the opposite is more likely to be true. Inflammation could be the cause of Alzheimer’s, not the result. We urgently need further research to find out exactly how inflammation starts.

Another urgent area for investigation is how the brain processes cholesterol and specifically how it affects the health of nerve cells that are affected in a person with Alzheimer’s.

We have never had a better opportunity to understand Alzheimer’s and the mechanisms that lay behind it. We now have real, tangible and achievable targets to aim for. Effective treatments for the disease, and even the ability to screen people for it, are now closer than we’d dared to believe. We must take the next steps and support more research to follow upon these and other exciting findings.

We need your help to rewrite the future of Alzheimer’s



A word from our Patron, Sir Terry Pratchett

Sir Terry was diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s in 2007.

“Like 820,000 others in the UK, I’m scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the Cure comes along. I was shocked when I found out that funding for Alzheimer’s research is just 3% of that for cancer, but care costs are billions of pounds higher for Alzheimer’s.

There’s only two ways it can go: researchers, with as much help we can give them, may come up with something that reduces the effects of this dreadful, inhuman disease, or we will have to face the consequences of our failure to prevent the final years of many of us being a long bad dream.

The strain on carers and their support is bad enough now; before very long the effects on the health service and society itself will be unbearable.”

Sir Terry Pratchett OBE, Patron of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust


The cost of research

£100: pays for a whole day of dementia research.

£1,000: provides brain scans for a research project for a whole year – helping us to understand how Alzheimer’s affects the brain and find ways of halting it.

£3,000: provides state-of-the-art imaging equipment, enabling researchers to study cells in minute detail.

£5,000: pays for chemical compounds enabling a project to investigate possible treatments for dementia.

£86,500: supports a talented young graduate scientist for three years. Conducting important research, they also learn valuable skills to use in research for years to come.

The Alzheimer’s Research Trust receives no government funding but relies on our wonderful supporters and gifts left to us in peoples’ Wills to fund our groundbreaking, potentially life-saving scientific research.

Please help us to keep up the momentum towards finding a cure.

To help rewrite the future, please call Dr Marie Janson, Director of Development at the Alzheimer’s Research Trust on 01223 843899 or email [email protected]

The future of dementia research is in your hands. Will you help us to write tomorrow’s headlines?


We are very grateful to all our supporters.

For further information about the Alzheimer’s Research Trust please visitwww.alzheimers-research.org.uk

Alzheimer’s Research Trust

Who we are

President: the Countess of Onslow

Chief Executive: Rebecca Wood

Director of Development: Dr Marie Janson

Patrons:

Prof Gustav Born FRS: Lindsay Duncan: Sir Richard Eyre: Sir David Frost OBE:

Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE: The Rt. Hon. the Baroness Jay of Paddington PC: Jan Morgan:

The Baroness Perry of Southwark: Joseph Pollock: Sir Terry Pratchett OBE:

The Rt. Hon. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen KT GCMG Hon FRSE PC: June Spencer OBE:

Dr Thomas Stuttaford OBE: The Rt. Hon. the Baroness Thatcher LG OM FRS

Board of Trustees:

Adrian Watney, Chairman: Dr Frank Abramson: John Battersby: Dick Bell:

Prof James Fawcett: Sheila Clark: Prof Peter Lantos: Tony Thompson: Roy Leighton

Scientific Advisory Board:

Prof Julie Williams, Chair: Prof Carol Brayne: Prof James Fawcett: Prof Nick Fox:

Prof John Hardy FRS: Prof Nigel Hooper: Dr Karen Horsburgh: Prof Peter Lantos:

Prof Simon Lovestone: Prof Chris Miller: Prof Kevin Morgan: Prof Maria-Grazia Spillantini:

Prof Peter St George-Hyslop: Dr Richard Wade-Martins:

Dick Bell: Jim Jackson: Barry Plumpton

Credits: Time Magazine, The Times, Daily Telegraph.

Photographic Credits: Johnathan Knowles, Justin Paget


Registered Charity No. 1077089. A company limited by guarantee, registered in England No. 3681291 Registered office: The Stables, Station Road, Great Shelford, Cambridge CB22 5LR


Documents

Alzheimer's Research Brochure