Researchers from The College of Texas at El Paso’s College of Pharmacy will discover the viability of a brand new therapy for vascular dementia, due to a $2.2 million grant from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH) Nationwide Institute of Neurological Problems and Stroke (NINDS). The grant builds on work that is beforehand been carried out by the staff and their collaborators.
Vascular dementia -; the second most typical kind of dementia worldwide -; is brought on by lowered or blocked blood movement within the mind. Just like Alzheimer’s illness, vascular dementia causes reminiscence loss and cognitive issues comparable to confusion, slowed considering, and issue with drawback fixing and talking.
Mohammad Iqbal Bhuiyan, Ph.D., assistant professor within the UTEP College of Pharmacy, is the mission’s principal investigator. His NINDS-funded analysis will deal with higher understanding the organic triggers behind vascular dementia and investigating a brand new candidate drug, often called “ZT-1a,” to counteract the situation.
The chance to work with my UTEP colleagues and the NINDS to develop an revolutionary therapeutic technique excites me probably the most. Our examine will ideally exhibit that this candidate drug is efficient and might forestall cognitive impairments in dementia sufferers.”
Mohammad Iqbal Bhuiyan, PhD, Assistant Professor, College of Pharmacy, The College of Texas at El Paso
Earlier than becoming a member of UTEP, Bhuiyan served as PI and Co-I on a number of NIH and Veterans Affairs grants, learning ischemic strokes, which happen when a vessel supplying blood to the mind is obstructed.
In a examine printed earlier this yr, Bhuiyan and former colleagues on the College of Pittsburgh found that ZT-1a, a compound that belongs to a class of medication referred to as SPAK inhibitors, is neuroprotective and might suppress the detrimental results of ischemic stroke.
In accordance with Bhuiyan, the findings counsel that ZT-1a has therapeutic potential in opposition to vascular dementia as a mind white matter protectant. Utilizing the NINDS grant, the UTEP staff will now take a look at that speculation over the subsequent a number of years.
“The Facilities for Illness Management estimate that almost 14 million adults will dwell with dementia by 2060,” stated José O. Rivera, Pharm.D., dean of the UTEP College of Pharmacy. “That’s the reason Dr. Bhuiyan’s analysis has such potential for impression. I congratulate him and his colleagues right here at UTEP on receiving this extremely aggressive grant from the NIH, and I sit up for the insights they may uncover.”
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