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MUSC Theses and Dissertations

2017

Alzheimer Disease

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Investigations At The Crossroads Of Down Syndrome And Alzheimer’S Disease, Eric Daniel Hamlett Jan 2017

Investigations At The Crossroads Of Down Syndrome And Alzheimer’S Disease, Eric Daniel Hamlett

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

People with Down syndrome (DS) have elevated neuroinflammation early in life and develop neuropathology by the age of twenty. Most individuals with DS go on to develop abnormal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This dissertation is focused on biological pathways involved in DS-AD and includes studies in humans with DS and DS mouse models. Locus coeruleus (LC) noradrenergic (NE) neurons decline before other transmitter systems on the path to DS-AD, which leads to increased neuropathology and accelerated memory loss. To investigate the specific roles of LC-NE in DS-AD, designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) were utilized in the …