(CoSTREAM) Common mechanisms and pathways in Stroke and Alzheimer's disease

Project summary

Common mechanisms and pathways in Stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. It has long been recognized that stroke and (Alzheimer’s Disease) AD often co-occur and have an overlapping pathogenesis. As such, these two diseases are not considered fellow travelers, but rather partners in crime. This project aims to improve our understanding of the co-occurrence of stroke and AD. An essential concept of our proposal is that stroke and AD are sequential diseases that have overlapping pathophysiological mechanisms in addition to shared risk factors. We will particularly focus on these common mechanisms and disentangle when and how these mechanisms diverge into causing either stroke, or AD, or both. We will do so by exploiting our vast international network in order to link various big datasets and by incorporating novel analytical strategies with emerging technologies in the field of genomics, metabolomics, and brain MR-imaging.

This project aims to improve our understanding of the co-occurrence of stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. The project builds upon large data sets on both diseases, with follow-up studies performed up to 25 years. In the end, CoSTREAM will lead to increased knowledge about shared pathways, and can lead to new therapeutic approaches.