Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease affecting -1,000,000 Americans. PD begins about the 6* decade with onset of bradykinesia, rigidity, and resting tremor. In addition, non-motor symptoms occur at any stage of PD, and >80% of PD patients develop dementia (PDD) with disease progression. Cognitive impairment (CI), executive dysfunction and dementia add to the burden of PD and increase mortality, but the underlying basis of dementia in PD is unclear, and there are no effective disease modifying therapies. Despite significant research advances, the exact causes of PD/PDD/DLB are unknown. To address these issues, a National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Morris K. Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Center of Excellence (Udall Center) was launched at the Perelman School of Medicine (Penn) of the University of Pennsylvania in 2007. The competing renewal for years 6-10 of the Penn Udall Center builds on its recent progress to elucidate the progression of PD from normal cognition to cognitive impairment (CI), executive dysfunction and dementia in PDD, as well as disease progression in DLB in addition to the central nervous system (CNS) degeneration mediated by progressive accumulations of pathological alpha-synuclein (a-syn). Because recent Penn Udall Center studies raise the provocative, but highly plausible possibility that the progression of PD/PDD/DLB is linked to the cell-to-cell spread of pathological a-syn, the overarching goals of the Penn Udall Center are to elucidate mechanisms of disease progression and a-syn transmission through synergistic collaborations between basic and translational research Projects that work with each of the Cores to implement the mission of the Penn Udall Center in the renewal period. To that end, the Udall Center renewal will implement the following Cores and Projects: Administrative Core A: Core Leaer (CL) - J.Q. Trojanowski; Clinical Core B: CL - H. Hurtig; Co-CL - A Siderowf; Neuropathology, Biomarker and Genetics Core C: CL - J.Q. Trojanowski; Co- CL - y. Van Deerlin; Co-Investigator (Col) - EB. Lee; Data Management, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core D: CL - S. Xie; Co-I - Li-San Wang; Project I: A Multimodal Biomarker Approach to Evaluating and Predicting Cognitive Decline in Lewy Body Spectrum Disorders: Project Leader (PL) - A. Siderowf; Co-I - A. Chen-Plotkin; Project II: Mechanisms Of PD Executive Dysfunction In Language: PL - M. Grossman; Co-I - R. Gross; Project III: Mechanisms Of Transmission Of Pathological Alpha-synuclein In Neurons: PL - V.M.-Y. Lee; Project IV: Immune Therapy To Block PD Transmission In Mice: PL - J.Q. Trojanowski; Co-I - V.M.-Y. Lee and Kelvin Luk.

Public Health Relevance

of the Penn Udall Center is that it elucidates mechanisms of CI, executive dysfunction and dementia in PD/PDD/DLB as well as mechanisms of neurodegeneration in these disorders mediated by the transmission of a-syn pathologies. By using new approaches and model systems to achieve its goals, the Penn Udall Center will elucidate novel disease mechanisms in PD/PDD/DLB and advance efforts to develop new interventions and better diagnostics for these disorders.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Specialized Center (P50)
Project #
5P50NS053488-09
Application #
8900353
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZNS1-SRB-J (01))
Program Officer
Sieber, Beth-Anne
Project Start
2007-06-15
Project End
2017-06-30
Budget Start
2015-07-01
Budget End
2016-06-30
Support Year
9
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
$1,972,754
Indirect Cost
$735,251
Name
University of Pennsylvania
Department
Pathology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
042250712
City
Philadelphia
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19104
Rey, Nolwen L; George, Sonia; Steiner, Jennifer A et al. (2018) Spread of aggregates after olfactory bulb injection of ?-synuclein fibrils is associated with early neuronal loss and is reduced long term. Acta Neuropathol 135:65-83
Lewczuk, Piotr; Riederer, Peter; O'Bryant, Sid E et al. (2018) Cerebrospinal fluid and blood biomarkers for neurodegenerative dementias: An update of the Consensus of the Task Force on Biological Markers in Psychiatry of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry. World J Biol Psychiatry 19:244-328
Simuni, Tanya; Caspell-Garcia, Chelsea; Coffey, Christopher S et al. (2018) Baseline prevalence and longitudinal evolution of non-motor symptoms in early Parkinson's disease: the PPMI cohort. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 89:78-88
Alcolea, Daniel; Irwin, David J; Illán-Gala, Ignacio et al. (2018) Elevated YKL-40 and low sAPP?:YKL-40 ratio in antemortem cerebrospinal fluid of patients with pathologically confirmed FTLD. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry :
Luna, Esteban; Decker, Samantha C; Riddle, Dawn M et al. (2018) Differential ?-synuclein expression contributes to selective vulnerability of hippocampal neuron subpopulations to fibril-induced toxicity. Acta Neuropathol 135:855-875
Zee, Jarcy; Xie, Sharon X (2018) The Kaplan-Meier Method for Estimating and Comparing Proportions in a Randomized Controlled Trial with Dropouts. Biostat Epidemiol 2:23-33
Peng, Chao; Gathagan, Ronald J; Covell, Dustin J et al. (2018) Cellular milieu imparts distinct pathological ?-synuclein strains in ?-synucleinopathies. Nature 557:558-563
Weintraub, Daniel; Tröster, Alexander I; Marras, Connie et al. (2018) Initial cognitive changes in Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord 33:511-519
Wyman-Chick, Kathryn A; Martin, Phillip K; Weintraub, Daniel et al. (2018) Selection of Normative Group Affects Rates of Mild Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson's Disease. Mov Disord 33:839-843
Irwin, David J; Hurtig, Howard I (2018) The Contribution of Tau, Amyloid-Beta and Alpha-Synuclein Pathology to Dementia in Lewy Body Disorders. J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 8:

Showing the most recent 10 out of 339 publications