Key Findings

In research published in the December 2024 issue of Fluids and Barriers of the CNS, Quentin R. Smith, PhD, reconciled discrepancies in blood-brain barrier research — a layer of cells that protects the brain from potentially dangerous substances and microbes.

Smith provided accurate methods for measuring permeability, spanning from poorly crossing polar compounds (those with a positive or negative charge) to rapidly crossing approved central nervous system clinical drugs. The paper was described in the manuscript review as “ the most important manuscript for anyone that considers themselves studying drug delivery in vivo (in a living organism).”

Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia marked by an accumulation within the brain of amyloid-β, a relatively small protein that forms toxic plaques, contributing to the effects of the disease. However, the full spectrum of gene expression regulation associated with Alzheimer’s diseases is still not well understood.

The National Institutes of Health recently awarded a two-year, $310,000 grant to Petar Grozdanov, PhD, to investigate how perturbed gene expression in the brain can contribute to neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. The study aims to improve understanding of changes in the transcriptional landscape by examining alternative polyadenylation, an RNA-processing mechanism suspected to play a role in regulating protein expression in the brain during the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. A better understanding of how genes in the brain behave during Alzheimer’s disease could lead to earlier detection and new interventions for patients.