Co-Principal Investigators: Randy Blakely, Ph.D. (FAU) and Uri Ashery, Ph.D. (Tel Aviv University)
Title: “Serotonergic IL-1R1 and Neuropsychiatric Traits of an Alzheimer's Mouse Model”
Sponsor: National Institute of Health (National Institute on Aging)
Award Amount: $379,177.00
Project Period: 08/01/2022 – 07/31/2024

Co-Principal Investigators, Randy Blakely, Ph.D., Executive Director FAU Brain Institute, Professor in the Department of Biomedical Science and Uri Ashery, Ph.D. of Tel Aviv University, along with Co-Investigators Ning Quan, Ph.D. and Maureen Hahn, Ph.D., recently received an award from the National Institute of Health for $379,177.00 over two-years to investigate neuropsychiatric symptoms commonly associated with Alzheimer disease (AD). These symptoms include depression, anxiety, apathy, and agitations, which are less appreciated and studied. This United States and Israel collaboration pursues the hypothesis that elevated pro-inflammatory signaling found in the AD brain makes an unappreciated contribution to comorbid affective illness, driven by high-level expression of inflammatory cytokine receptor IL-1R1 on serotonin-releasing neurons. The planned studies will utilize mice expressing human gene mutations that induce AD pathology and that disable IL-1R1 signaling on serotonin neurons to assess whether the latter manipulation can suppress cellular, physiological and behavioral changes.