Florin Despa speaks at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease Congress 2022

Dr. Florin Despa, Ph.D., provided attendees of the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease Congress 2022 in San Francisco with several interviews as well as a talk, wherein he discusses the lab's ongoing work to understand the role of amyloidogenic amylin in Alzheimer's disease and associated cognitive decline. His talk was entitled "Systemic inflammation and reduced cerebral Aβ clearance triggered by pancreatic amylin."

In the first interview, Dr. Despa states that data from our lab indicates hyperamylinemia leads to amylin accumulation on monocytes which further increases amylin deposition in the cerebrovasculature which impairs interstitial fluid drainage. Dr. Despa also discusses the association between amylin hypersecretion, imapired oxygen transport, neuroinflammation, and reduced cognitive function in his second interview. In a third interview, he discusses how lowering amylin levels may improve the clearance of toxic beta-amyloid plaques from the brain. He discusses the challenges of targeting the pancreas, due to the fact that insulin and amylin are co-secreted, and suggests focusing on secreted amylin as a therapeutic target.