University of South Alabama lab to study ‘understudied’ protein in Alzheimer’s disease after grant funding

MOBILE, Ala. ( WKRG ) — A University of South Alabama laboratory is starting a study into what scientists say is a “highly understudied protein” linked to Alzheimer’s disease as USA researcher Dr. Amy R. Nelson received grant funding.

The $300,000 grant from the Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust that was awarded to Dr. Nelson at the CART 2024 annual board meeting after she and other scientists presented their research, will support Nelson’s lab to begin a new pilot study into caldesmon.

According to a USA news release, caldesmon is a protein that limits cells from contracting. Nelson said her lab became interested in studying caldesmon when they found that the levels were reduced in brain pericytes — which are cells that make up the blood-brain barrier and control blood flow — in brain tissue from Alzheimer’s disease patients.

This finding prompted the idea of the pilot study, which the release said aims to find why there is a reduction in blood flow and a loss of pericytes in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease.

“I hope our findings will reveal new potential mechanisms of and a novel therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s disease,” Nelson said.

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