Project title: Early sleep and circadian markers of Alzheimer’s disease: The impact of APOE-ε4 on circadian rhythm and sleep-wake homeostasis in humans.
ABSTRACT
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. As Alzheimer’s progresses it can cause severe memory impairment and difficulties with thinking, problem solving or language. It is estimated that 1 in 3 people born within the UK will develop dementia within their lifetime, and that around two thirds of all dementia cases can be attributed to Alzheimer’s disease. Dementia is a significant public health problem within the UK and across the world. It profoundly affects the quality of life of the patients and their families. Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are now the leading cause of death in the UK.
We spend one third of our life asleep and sleep has been shown to be essential for protecting our health and quality of life. Interestingly, sleep problems are common in dementia disorders and can be present a long time before diagnosis. Little is known as to how sleep is affected in healthy people who have a higher risk of developing the disease due to their genes. A genotype is a term used to refer to a particular variation of a gene that may cause certain changes in our bodies. If we have inherited a particular genotype, we may be at an increased risk of developing certain diseases. The APOE-ε4 genotype has been identified as a risk gene for Alzheimer’s disease and also decreased sleep quality in healthy adults. The APOE ε3/3 genotype has not been found to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s. During this study we hope to find out if differences in the APOE genotype change sleep, brain function, and hormone levels in healthy people. We will do this by studying sleep in people’s homes and by changing how much time a person can sleep in a lab setting.
Principal Investigator
A/Prof Alpar Lazar
Lecturer in Dementia and Complexity in Later Life
School of Health Sciences
Tel: +44 (0)1603 592605
Email: a.lazar@uea.ac.uk
Research Team
Adriana Michalak
PhD student
School of Health Sciences
Tel: +44 (0)1603 597231
Email: a.michalak@uea.ac.uk
Ziad Shabana
PhD student
School of Health Sciences
Tel: +44 (0)1603 593233
Medical supervision:
Dr Nigel Gill
Honorary Research Fellow
School of Health Sciences
Dr Jordan Tsigarides
Honorary Research Fellow
School of Health Sciences
Would you like to get engaged?
We are continuously recruiting participants!
If you are interested in volunteering please send an email to sleep.brain@uea.ac.uk
Funding notes
Seed award in Science to A/Prof Lazar from the Wellcome trust