Mechanisms contributing to co-morbid psychosis in Alzheimer's disease

项目摘要/摘要： 精神病症状（幻觉和妄想）是阿尔茨海默病中非常普遍的疾病。不幸的是， 用于治疗精神病的抗精神病药物在老年人中是禁忌的，因为食品和药物 美国食品和药物管理局 (FDA) 对所有第一代和第二代抗精神病药物发出黑框警告 表明这些药物会增加老年痴呆症患者的死亡风险。我们已经证明了 海马体在多巴胺系统功能的调节中起着核心作用，并且异常 海马对多巴胺神经元活动的调节可能导致精神分裂症的精神病。鉴于此 海马体是 AD 病理的关键部位，我们推测海马体可能是汇聚部位 导致 AD 中的共病精神病，我们将使用啮齿动物模型来研究这一假设。具体来说， 我们将检查多巴胺神经元活动的基础活动和传入调节以及行为相关性 两种不同 AD 啮齿动物模型中精神病的研究（目标 1）。然后我们将检查 AD 病理学的后果 vHipp 中间神经元功能以及是否移植干细胞衍生的中间神经元（目标 2）或 海马功能的药理学调节（目标 3）可以逆转异常的神经元活动 AD 模型中的行为。因此，该提案确定了一个潜在的新治疗靶点，并告知 开发针对 AD 和共病精神病的更有效的治疗方法。

Project Summary/Abstract: Psychotic symptoms (hallucinations and delusions) are highly prevalent Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately, the antipsychotic medications used to treat psychosis are contraindicated in the elderly where the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a black-box warning for all first- and second-generation antipsychotic medications indicating that these drugs increase the risk of death in elderly dementia patients. We have demonstrated that the hippocampus plays a central role in the regulation of dopamine system function and that aberrant hippocampal regulation of dopamine neuron activity likely contributes to psychosis in schizophrenia. Given that the hippocampus is a key site of pathology in AD, we posit that the hippocampus may be a site of convergence contributing to comorbid psychosis in AD, and we will use rodent models to study this hypothesis. Specifically, we will examine basal activity and afferent regulation of dopamine neuron activity as well as behavioral correlates of psychosis in two distinct rodent models of AD (Aim 1). We will then examine the consequence of AD pathology on vHipp interneuron function and whether transplantation of stem cell derived interneurons (Aim 2) or pharmacological modulation of hippocampal function (Aim 3) can reverse aberrant neuronal activity and behavior in AD models. This proposal with therefore identify a potential novel therapeutic target and inform the development of more effective treatment approaches for AD and comorbid psychosis.