University of Kentucky Research Foundation

Eric M Blalock

Philip W Landfield

Kuey-Chu Chen

Olivier Thibault

Thomas S Foster

John Christopher Gant

Nada Porter

Patrick Kaminker

The subject technology relates, in part, to a method of treating Alzheimer's Disease (AD), early-stage AD, elevated risk of AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or other forms of age-related cognitive decline in a subject in need thereof by administering to the subject a molecule that promotes calcium-release stabilization in ryanodine receptors (RyRs) and/or inosital triphosphate receptors (InsP3Rs) in brain cells. Diagnostic methods using calcium-release stabilizing immunophilins, junctophilins or calmodulin are also disclosed.

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A statistical and functional correlation strategy to identify changes in cellular pathways specifically linked to impaired cognitive function with aging. Analyses using the strategy identified multiple groups of genes expressed in the hippocampi of mammals, where the genes were expressed at different levels for several ages. The aging changes in expression began before mid-life. Many of the genes were involved in specific neuronal and glial pathways with previously unrecognized relationships to aging and/or cognitive decline. These identified genes and the proteins they encode can be used as novel biomarkers of brain aging and as targets for developing treatment methods against age-related cognitive decline, Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease.

Biomarkers for aging

A method for obtaining molecules from a substantially intact single cell is disclosed. The method differs from prior methods that obtain a variable fraction of a cell's contents and therefore cannot quantitatively estimate the number of molecules in the cells. The present method comprises isolating and harvesting a substantially intact single cell from its organ tissue comprising the steps of subjecting a tissue mass to a dissociation method so that the cells are dissociated from the tissue to expose cell bodies or cell processes, contacting a dissociated cell with a device capable of collecting the cell from the tissue substantially intact, withdrawing device with the cell attached, and then isolating or detecting the molecules in the single cell.

Method for analyzing molecular expression or function in an intact single cell

Growing community of inventors

Lexington, KY, United States of America

Eric M Blalock