University of California San Francisco
University of California Davis
University of California Los Angeles
Small vessel cerebrovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease are the two most common causes of cognitive decline in the elderly, but methods for determining the relative contributions of both these pathologies to functional impairment, understanding their interactions, predicting progression and defining targets for clinical trials remain underdeveloped. Within the MarkVCID consortium, our site (triumvirate UCSF/UCD/UCLA) is leading the collaborative development of two plasma-based biomarkers of endotheliopathy (endothelial inflammation and signaling) as well as neuroimaging measures of cerebral injury associated with endothelial disease (free water and white matter hyperintensity). We are prospectively recruiting deeply phenotyped older adults with a range of cerebrovascular risk, functional decline and known amyloid PET status. Our models will address the relationships between these markers, measures of amyloid burden, cognition, and change over time. Accomplishing these goals will improve early detection, diagnosis, and prognosis of small vessel cerebrovascular disease, and provide better targets and outcome metrics for clinical trials.
Investigators: Joel Kramer (lead PI, also consortium lead for composite executive measure), Charles DeCarli (co-PI, lead for the MRI white matter hyperintensity biomarker), Fanny Elahi (co-I, lead for the plasma exosome endothelial inflammation biomarker), Jason Hinman (co-I, lead for the plasma endothelial signaling biomarker), Pauline Maillard (co-I, lead for the MRI free water biomarker
Investigators Information
Professor of Neuropsychology in Neurology
University of California San Francisco
Victor and Genevieve Orsi Chair in Alzheimer's Research
Professor of Neurology
University of California Davis
