Professor Katie Lunnon wants to know, if we have got so good at curing other diseases, why can’t we do this for dementia?
I’ve spent my whole career working on Alzheimer’s disease, studying neurodegeneration in the human brain.
Dementia is an umbrella term that covers a range of symptoms. The most common cause is Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for about two-thirds of dementia cases, but there are other causes, like dementia with Lewy bodies or vascular dementia.
My grandmother had Lewy body dementia. It is heartbreaking to see someone change. The deterioration and confusion, and the impact on the person’s carers, are devastating. People used to think that dementia is just an inevitable stage of ageing, but it’s not. It’s a biological process. If we can understand more, we can develop treatments and prevent people from developing it at all, giving back quality years of life.
The biggest issue the dementia research landscape has had is that, historically, it has been so underfunded compared to other diseases like cancer and heart disease. But actually, as a result of that research, we’ve become really good at people living longer and healthier lives, meaning that more people are living to old age. Dementia, being something that affects people with age, means that we’re seeing a rise in the number of dementia cases. It has become a really pressing issue to try to develop treatments.
Over the last couple of decades, there have been huge revolutions in the technology available for us to study with. There is so much to be hopeful for. I work with an exceptional group of researchers and scientists. At the moment, we are using fascinating new technology to isolate specific cell types in the brain to measure chemical changes. We look at epigenetics, which essentially means ‘above the DNA’ – so, how your behaviours and environment can cause changes that affect how your genes work. Epigenetic modifications are chemical tags that are added to your genes that turn them on or off, like biological switches.
