News & Events
The Leducq Foundation Awarded an $8 Million Grant to Understand the Role of Brain Clearance in Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy
The Leducq Foundation has awarded a five-year $8 million grant to fund a new transatlantic network of excellence to study the role of brain clearance in cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). CAA is the main cause of hemorrhagic stroke, an important contributor to cognitive decline in older individuals, and the most common vascular comorbidity in Alzheimer’s disease. With the rising aging population, CAA is increasing, and effective disease-modifying interventions are nonexistent. Accumulating evidence is suggesting that defective perivascular brain clearance of waste products (including Amyloid) plays an important role in the pathophysiology of CAA. However, there are many fundamental unknowns regarding how the brain clears waste. Unraveling the mechanisms of brain clearance will have major implications for understanding CAA as well as other common dementia disorders.
The consortium is expected to officially start January 1st 2024, and includes investigators from research sites across the US and Europe: Dr. Benveniste (Yale University, CT), Drs. Iliff & Shih (University of Washington, WA), Dr. Van Nostrand (University of Rhode Island, RI), Drs. Van Veluw & Greenberg (Massachusetts General Hospital, MA), Dr. Bakker (Amsterdam University Medical Center, the Netherlands), Dr. Carare (University of Southampton, UK), Dr. Lorthois (Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse, France), Dr. Petzold (German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease in Bonn, Germany), and Dr. Van Osch (Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands). The network will be led by North American coordinator Dr. Susanne van Veluw and European coordinator Dr. Matthias van Osch.
The goal of the network is to use a translational approach to study brain waste clearance in CAA. The overarching consortium aims are to 1) establish a data-driven, integrated multi-scale understanding of perivascular brain clearance in health and CAA, 2) translate experimental findings from rodent models to the human brain, and 3) identify relevant driving forces to be tested in future clinical trials to enhance brain clearance.
The Leducq Foundation is an international grant-making organization with a mission to improve human health through international efforts to combat cardiovascular disease and stroke. By forging scientific alliances that transcend national borders and educating young researchers who thrive in an international context, they hope to promote long-term collaborative relationships and to foster innovations in cardiovascular and stroke research, to change the way that patients with cardiovascular and neurovascular disease are diagnosed and treated. For more information, please visit https://www.fondationleducq.org/
“Interested in joining the network? See here for job opportunities.”
New landmark paper on the disease progression of CAA: a pathophysiological framework
This new review paper provides a comprehensive framework and timeline for the disease progression of CAA. The paper summarizes emerging evidence from studies in individuals with Dutch-type CAA, sporadic CAA, and iatrogenic forms of CAA as well findings from experimental studies in mouse models. Key stages that appear to evolve sequentially over two to three decades are initial vascular amyloid-β deposition (stage 1), altered vascular function (stage 2), non-hemorrhagic tissue injury (stage 3), and finally appearance of hemorrhagic brain lesions (stage 4). This timeline of stages and the biology that link them have substantial implications for identifying novel interventions for CAA. This work was the result of a strong collaborative effort across multiple international CAA research sites. Download the paper here.
9th International CAA Conference
We are pleased to announce that the 9th International CAA Conference will take place in Munich, Germany from October 15th to 17th, 2024. Additional information regarding the conference will be made available soon here. We encourage you to mark your calendars and plan to join us for this exciting gathering of researchers, physicians, and others interested in CAA. We look forward to seeing you there!
Recap of the 8th International CAA Conference
The 8th International CAA Conference took place on November 3-5 in Perth, Western Australia. It was a unique meeting in several regards. This was the first time that an International CAA Conference was held outside of Europe or North America, and our first in-person meeting after the Covid-19 pandemic. A broad range of topics was discussed, including novel insights related to iatrogenic CAA, Dutch-type CAA, perivascular amyloid clearance, biomarker research, and Amyloid-Related Imaging Abnormalities (just to name a few). Another ‘first’ was an up-date on the development of the International CAA Association clinical guidelines. The goal of these guidelines will be to provide clinicians worldwide with evidence-based recommendations for the diagnosis and management of CAA. They will be posted on the website as soon as they are finalized. The conference was concluded by a public forum, a first of a kind meeting where researchers and patient advocates from three continents came together in one room to talk about CAA, including Dutch-type CAA. Overall, the 8th International CAA Conference in Perth was a huge success. A big thank you to the local organizers: Drs. Hamid Sohrabi, Ralph Martins, Kevin Taddei, and Samantha Gardener.
The new Boston Criteria (version 2.0) for the diagnosis of CAA were just released
A definite diagnosis of CAA can only be made after death, by examining the brain tissue under the microscope. A breakthrough in the field was the introduction of the Boston criteria in the 1990s, which allowed for the first time to make a diagnosis of possible or probable CAA during life. These criteria are based on the presence of characteristic neuroimaging markers, such as microbleeds in the outer regions of the brain. In 2010, the criteria were updated (modified Boston criteria or version 1.5) as knowledge evolved and imaging techniques improved. And now here we are: twelve years of experience and observations later, with the Boston criteria version 2.0. In this updated version, new imaging markers are included to further help doctors in diagnosing CAA. See for more information here.