NIH Awards $30.9 Million to Expand The Neighborhoods Study Linking Social Exposome to Alzheimer's Disease Risk
核心洞察
The National Institutes of Health awarded $30.9 million in a second round of funding to The Neighborhoods Study, a collaboration across 24 Alzheimer's Disease (搜索) Research Centers including UC Davis Health (搜索).
The study examines environmental factors such as poverty, education, housing, employment and toxins—the social exposome—and their link to Alzheimer's disease (搜索) and related dementias.
It is the largest study in the world connecting the social exposome with brain tissues and their disease biomarkers, aiming to develop prevention measures tailored to high-risk populations.
A national study exploring the relationship between Alzheimer's disease (搜索), environmental factors and lifetime experiences has been awarded $30.9 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award represents the second round of NIH funding for The Neighborhoods Study, a collaboration between 24 Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers (ADRCs), including UC Davis Health (搜索)'s center.
The study is led by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (搜索). It examines environmental factors such as poverty, education, housing, employment and toxins—collectively known as the social exposome—and their link to Alzheimer's disease (搜索) and related dementias (ADRD). It is the largest study in the world to connect the social exposome with brain tissues and their disease biomarkers.
Investigating Environmental Drivers of Dementia Risk
The Neighborhoods Study will assess lead-contaminated infrastructure exposure, job-related toxin exposures and heavy metals in brain tissue to better understand what makes certain populations more vulnerable to ADRD. The study is expected to lead to ADRD prevention measures that are precisely tailored to populations at highest risk based on exposures. Its work focuses on risk mitigation and new interventions in ADRD, advancing knowledge of the relationship between exposome and dementia (搜索) to improve health for all.
The Neighborhoods Study was started in 2021. It has supported the development of the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), a powerful tool used by the University of Wisconsin's Center for Health Disparities Research to develop thousands of health interventions and policies. The ADI aims at achieving better health outcomes for people living in rural and urban neighborhoods with greatest need. It has demonstrated an association between neighborhood disadvantage and increased odds of neurodegeneration, ADRD biomarkers and post-mortem ADRD neuropathology. It has also linked residency in high ADI neighborhoods across one's lifetime with increased risk of neurodegeneration and brain disease.
A Modifiable Target for Prevention
"We have known for some time the genetic and biological factors that contribute to ADRD, but growing evidence suggests that community and neighborhood-level factors may also influence ADRD risk," said Oanh Meyer, professor of neurology and Neighborhoods Study site principal investigator for UC Davis Health (搜索). "These factors are potentially modifiable, and thus important targets for prevention and intervention."
Meyer is research faculty with the Alzheimer's Disease (搜索) Research Center and leads the Vietnamese Insights into Cognitive Aging Program, or VIP.
"UC Davis is pleased to be one of the sites participating in this incredibly important research program," said Rachel Whitmer, co-director of the Alzheimer's Disease (搜索) Research Center and epidemiologist. "The Neighborhoods Study leverages numerous Alzheimer's research centers. By combining data from the different sites, we could uniquely achieve the statistical power to determine how factors related to people's context and life experiences contribute to biological indicators of both dementia (搜索) and healthy brain aging."
Whitmer is the co-investigator at the UC Davis site. She is professor of public health sciences and neurology and chief of epidemiology at UC Davis Health (搜索).
The Scale of the Challenge
An estimated 6.5 million older Americans lived with Alzheimer's disease (搜索) in 2022. By 2060, this figure is projected to grow to 13.8 million people, meaning that 42% of Americans over age 55 will eventually develop dementia (搜索).
The Neighborhoods Study is the largest of its kind linking brain tissue to life-long exposures to more fully examine the precise mechanisms by which the social exposome impacts ADRD risk and outcomes.