Impact review 2011/12

Professor Christian Hölscher from the University of Ulster, in Northern Ireland, has been researching whether diabetes drugs could help treat Alzheimer's disease. His work has seen extremely promising results.

Watch Professor Christan Hölscher talk about his research

You can also read the transcript of this film

Why are you looking to existing drugs to treat dementia instead of developing new ones?

'The main advantage is that these drugs have already been rigorously tested. We know that they're safe to take and we understand the effects they have on patients. Getting to this stage is a long and expensive process. So, being able to jump straight to clinical trials with people with Alzheimer's disease saves around 10 years of research, as well as millions of pounds.'

Why diabetes drugs?

'We have known for some time that diabetes is a risk factor for developing Alzheimer's disease. When someone has diabetes, the cells in their brain can have problems growing and repairing themselves.

'The results of our tests with mice show that these diabetes drugs can be very effective in protecting the cells and neurons in the brain and helping them to stay healthy and to grow. The drugs reduced the levels of a protein called amyloid, which is a key feature of Alzheimer's disease, and protected against swelling in the brain. The earlier the drugs are used, the better effect they have, but even after extensive damage the drugs appear to be able to improve the situation.'

You've now been funded to test the drugs with people in the early phase of Alzheimer's disease - what do you hope to see?

'If the results are as we hope, we will see that the drugs can slow down or even halt the damage to the brain that Alzheimer's disease causes. We also hope we'll see that they protect people from the degenerative effects of the disease, such as confusion and memory loss.'

How will new treatments like this improve the lives of people with dementia now and in the future?

'We have to wait for clinical trials, but this has the potential to have a profound effect on people's lives. If the drugs can slow down the progress of the disease, as we hope, this will help people to live independent lives, interacting with their friends and families, for much longer. For the future, we hope that this work will spark a whole new wave of research. We're already starting to work on other types of drugs that look promising and I'm sure we will find better treatments and strategies to protect the brain and keep cells healthy.'

During the year

• We funded £3.1 million of essential new research into the cause, cure, care and prevention of dementia, and our research was published in 50 academic publications. We worked closer than ever with our Research Network, a group of over 200 people affected by dementia who are integral to our research.
• Our innovative Drug Discovery programme was launched by Lord Fellowes in the House of Lords in May 2011.The programme has the potential to bring better treatments to hundreds of thousands of people with dementia sooner. We've identified the top five drugs and are progressing towards the final pre-clinical laboratory testing before we start the clinical trial in 2014. A fundraising appeal, focused on the programme, raised £190,000.
• Following the call from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) for dementia-themed research proposals, we ran a unique networking workshop, attended by UK researchers and our research network volunteers. Advice from people with experience of dementia helped researchers to improve their research funding applications - 30 were ultimately supported by us and 10 were shortlisted by NIHR.
• We held a symposium on the treatment of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (AAICAD). Leading researchers
  announced three groundbreaking clinical trials at the event, which was attended by over 200 researchers.